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http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_27045442/defending-guilty-well-sometimes-theyre-not Defending the guilty? Well, sometimes they're not By Daniel M. Mayfield Special to the Mercury News Posted: 11/30/2014 04:00:00 PM PST\ It always comes up. Not usually the first question, but after a short while in a conversation with a new acquaintance: "How can you defend someone who is guilty?' During the 35 years I have practiced criminal defense, I have come up with various answers. There is the old fallback: "Everyone deserves a defense." There is the flippant: "It's a job." There is the combative: "Why do you ask?" The truth is that I love it. I love my work; I enjoy the people I work with, including the DAs, the judges, the officers. And I care about my clients. I care about even the most depraved, supposedly hardened, coldblooded killer. On Nov. 24, two men in Cincinnati were released from custody after 39 years for a crime they did not commit. In the past six months we have seen no less than six men (some of whom were on death row for over 30 years) released when DNA evidence proved them innocent. Interestingly, one of these cases was cited in 1994 by Justice Antonin Scalia, in a very personal attack on Justice Harry Blackmun's anti-death penalty position. Scalia said it was the ultimate justification for the death penalty. (Callins v. Collins 510 U.S. 1141). I wonder how he would feel if criminal defense lawyers had not kept these two men alive long enough to be exonerated. I wonder why no one ever asks me, "What is it like to defend someone who is innocent?" or, "Tell me why you took that case?" The answers to these questions are more complicated. There are the cases that stick with you, that make you wake up in the middle of the night. If I were asked, I would say, "I took this case because it is wrong that the United States is the only country in the world that allows life in prison without parole for juveniles." I would say, "I took this case because my client was targeted because he was Muslim." I would say, "I took this case because no one is illegal." I would say, "I took this case because there is humanity in everyone, and no one deserves the death penalty." One day, perhaps through no fault of your own, you will want to consult with a criminal defense lawyer. Maybe you are a victim of a crime and worried about how you will be treated in court. Maybe you did something but are incorrectly charged. Maybe you are guilty but looking for a plea bargain that will not cause your deportation. Maybe you are innocent. When you make that call, I hope you will find a kind, understanding, voice on the other end of the line. When you make that call, you will want to find a lawyer who is willing to meet with you and accept your situation as it is. One who will work with you for a just disposition, not someone who will just try to destroy the opposition. Being a criminal defense lawyer is a lot like swing dancing. You can't do it alone, and it is hard to do it with a partner for the first time, but after a while you begin to work together. Then, one of the partners tries something new. You drop hands and try a spin, and on the downbeat you reach out for your partner's hand as you lean back. If the hand is not there you will fall backward. But the hand is there reaching out for you because the truth is that you are part of a team and working together you can create something beautiful. Justice! Daniel M. Mayfield is an attorney with Carpenter and Mayfield in San Jose. He wrote this for this newspaper.
So much for the death penalty being a deterrent to crime: "Since the current death penalty system was adopted 35 years ago, more than 900 people have been sentenced to death but only 13 have been executed." The article didn't address this, but the death penalty is also racist. Our racist government rulers use the death penalty to murder Black folks at a rate many times higher then White people are murdered. Personally I am against the death penalty, because mistakes have been made and innocent people have been executed. And of course mistakes will be made in the future and more innocent people will be executed. http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_27048321/california-attorney-general-defends-death-penalty California attorney general defends death penalty By The Associated Press Posted: 12/02/2014 05:45:11 AM PST SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California's attorney general filed court papers Monday defending the constitutionality of the state's death penalty. Attorney General Kamala Harris urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court decision invalidating the penalty. In July, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney tossed out the death sentence of Ernest Jones, a Los Angeles man convicted in 1995 of raping and murdering his girlfriend's mother two years earlier. Carney said it takes too long to carry out executions in California and that capital punishment is arbitrarily applied in the state. Jones appealed to the federal courts after the California Supreme Court upheld his death penalty. Since the current death penalty system was adopted 35 years ago, more than 900 people have been sentenced to death but only 13 have been executed. "California's system for carefully reviewing capital convictions and sentences" takes time, Harris wrote. "It might be hastened if the state had no resource constraints, or less interest in ensuring the accuracy and legality of its judgments in capital cases." The judge's ruling had little effect on the current state of California's death penalty. A federal judge put executions on hold in 2006 after finding California's lethal injection procedures were severely flawed and ordered an overhaul. Since then, a new death chamber has been constructed and new regulations drafted on how to carry out lethal injections. The state has yet to present the updates to the judge because a state judge ruled that the new regulations have been improperly drafted.
Epic pair: SF’s best marijuana, food trucks unite I always will like San Francisco even if it is the Peoples Socialist Republic of San Francisco!!! Same for Berkeley on the other side of the Bay. http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2014/12/01/epic-pair-sfs-best-marijuana-food-trucks-unite/ Epic pair: SF’s best marijuana, food trucks unite Posted on December 1, 2014 at 9:26 am by David Downs in Business, Events, featured, Lifestyle Thousands of Bay Area medical cannabis patients and industry members scored an epic win Saturday with a top-shelf herb contest held for the first time at the delicious SOMA StrEat Food Park in San Francisco. The 8th annual Patients’ Choice San Francisco pitted dozens of local dispensaries, delivery services, kitchens and manufacturers against each other for top honors Saturday. Unlike most cannabis competitions where a select group of judges pick winners — patients who purchased the $300 Judge’s Pack did the grading. First place trophies for flowers went to The Green Door for the indica Kosher Kush, sativa Candy Jack, and C.R.A.F.T. Collective for their hybrid Tahoe Chem. The awards Saturday evening capped a sweet and savory day of dabs, blunts, bowls and vape bags augmented by tasty cups of Blue Bottle coffee, elite korean BBQ, sliders, and bacon, so much bacon. SOMA StrEat Food Park is an award-winning food park and beer garden featuring a rotating line-up of fabulous food trucks like Senor Sisig, Bacon Bacon, Kokio Republic, Me So Hungry, Lil Burma and Dusty Buns. “I was worried it was going to rain,” said Michelle Aldrich, San Francisco resident, attendee and longtime activist who helped pass Proposition 215 in 1996. “But our goddess let it not rain.” Unlike much larger, more circus-like Cannabis Cups, the Patients’ Choice was intimate, and elegantly curated, with a select slate of local vendors and booths. The boutique competition featured Bayonics, DJ SelektaLou, Red Hots Burlesque and was hosted by comedian Jamie DeWolf, creator of Smoked, the Movie. Event organizer and founder of The Green Cross Kevin Reed said he hoped to bring The Patients’ Choice back to SOMA StrEat Food Park next year. Proceeds benefited California NORML.
Hmmm 99 percent of these folks in NYC jails and a drug problem??? "99 percent had a substance abuse problem." Does that mean we could reduced the number of people in jails and prison if we quit arresting people for victimless drug war crimes??? So what are the cops going to do??? Shake them down for money on the spot and then release them??? "With this plan, Mr. de Blasio is essentially seeking to continue the aggressive policing of minor crimes, while seeking to keep many of the offenders out of jail." We also need to stop jailing people for being "crazy"!!!!! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/nyregion/new-york-city-to-expand-health-services-for-mentally-ill-inmates.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 New York City Plans Focus on Mental Health in Justice System By MICHAEL WINERIP and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZDEC. 1, 2014 In an effort to reduce the growing number of inmates with mental health and substance abuse problems in New York City’s jails, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans on Monday to significantly expand public health services at almost every step of the criminal justice process. City officials, who are allocating $130 million over four years to the project, said their goal was to break the revolving door of arrest, incarceration and release that has trapped many troubled individuals in the system for relatively minor, quality-of-life offenses. The new plan will shift emphasis from punishment for minor crimes to treatment. The changes include tripling the size of both pretrial diversion programs and the amount of resources devoted to easing the transition from jail back into society. This would represent a significantly different approach to criminal justice in the city, experts said. But they cautioned that nothing of such scale had been tried by a municipality before, and that putting the plan into effect would be difficult. “I think this is what criminal justice looks like in the 21st century,” said Elizabeth Glazer, the mayor’s criminal justice coordinator, who was a co-chairwoman of a task force of city officials and community leaders that released a report on Monday detailing the changes. “Preventing crime is about more than the police and more than about prosecutors and defense lawyers and courts.” The overhaul in New York City comes at a time when police departments across the country have faced scrutiny after several shootings of unarmed individuals, many with mental illnesses. In New York, the portion of inmates at the city’s jails who are mentally ill has increased to nearly 40 percent in recent years, even as the overall number of people incarcerated has shrunk. Many of these inmates are so-called frequent fliers, constantly cycling in and out of Rikers Island, the city’s main jail complex. The task force report identified more than 400 people who had been jailed at least 18 times in the last five years, accounting for over 10,000 jail admissions during that period. It said that 67 percent of these inmates had “a mental health need”; 21 percent were severely mentally ill, meaning they had diseases like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder; and 99 percent had a substance abuse problem. The task force’s report reads, in some ways, as an effort to moderate the prevailing policing methods of the last two decades, in which large numbers of people, including many who were homeless, were swept off the streets and incarcerated for low-level crimes like fare beating, loitering and trespassing. Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, appears to be trying to forge a middle ground, at a time when violent crime is at historic lows. Twenty years ago, as crime in the city surged to record levels, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican, initiated a policy, known as broken windows, to aggressively police quality-of-life offenses. More recently, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a political independent, championed the use of stop-and-frisk tactics in neighborhoods where crime persisted. With this plan, Mr. de Blasio is essentially seeking to continue the aggressive policing of minor crimes, while seeking to keep many of the offenders out of jail. The test will be whether the two approaches are compatible and a low crime rate can be sustained. Among the many innovations suggested by the task force is the development of community based drop-off centers, where police officers with specialized training could bring people they have taken into custody for minor crimes. The centers would “provide an option for people who need neither to be held for arraignment on low-level charges nor emergency room services,” the report said. Each center would have detox services, beds for short-term stays, and case managers who could make referrals to existing programs in the community. The first such center would be opened in fall 2015 in Manhattan and the second in an unspecified borough in early 2016, the report said. While Police Commissioner William J. Bratton served on the task force’s executive committee, the success of several of the programs will depend on the attitude of rank-and-file police officers, who would need to buy into such major changes. The city also hopes to improve mental-health screening before arraignment. At present, an emergency service worker assesses people for serious physical ailments before they appear in court. Under the new plan, a medical worker would screen for serious psychiatric problems and possibly divert people from court to treatment programs. Also planned is an expansion of supervised pretrial programs for low-level offenders who might otherwise fail to make bail. The amount of people the programs could serve would increase to 3,400 from the current capacity of 1,100. Each year, the mayor’s plan would provide community services for an additional 4,100 inmates with serious mental illnesses who are being discharged from jail. For a decade, the city has been under court order to provide such services, but has repeatedly failed to meet basic standards set by the court, including transportation to a residence or shelter, and referrals for mental health treatment. In April, Justice Geoffrey D. Wright, of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, extended court oversight for two more years because the city had again not met the basic standards. Another major problem identified by the task force is the difficulty of immediately restarting Medicaid services for inmates; Medicaid coverage is canceled by the state during incarceration. Without coverage, former inmates cannot fill prescriptions to treat their mental illnesses. City officials and criminal justice experts said various aspects of the de Blasio administration’s plan had been put into effect by other cities, but none of the other programs had been as ambitious. “I don’t know of any other major city that has done something that is so comprehensive,” said Jim Parsons, research director of the Vera Institute of Justice. Of the funds allocated to the project, $90 million will come from tax revenues, and $40 million from the Manhattan district attorney’s asset forfeiture fund. Whether or not that amount will be sufficient remains to be seen, experts said. “Until you try these initiatives, it’s hard to know exactly what kind of investment will be needed,” Mr. Parsons said. Inmate advocates, long critical of the city’s approach to criminal justice, spoke highly of the new initiative. “It’s a comprehensive plan that, if implemented, could have a significant impact,” said Jennifer J. Parish, director of criminal justice advocacy at the Urban Justice Center. In February, Jerome Murdough, a 56 year-old veteran with schizophrenia and a substance abuse problem, was found dead after a heating malfunction drove the temperatures in his cell at Rikers to over 100 degrees. Mr. Murdough had been arrested for sleeping in the stairwell of a public-housing project. In October, the city paid his family $2.25 million to settle a wrongful-death suit. Mr. Murdough’s case is illustrative of many of the issues in the criminal justice system that the de Blasio administration is now seeking to address. “We see these frequent fliers, people who commit relatively small low level offenses, cycling through the system over and over and over again,” Ms. Glazer said. “And the question is, how do we stop that? Clearly what we’re doing now is not all that effective.”
What America’s police departments don’t want you to know "How many [police] killings are there each year? No one can say for sure, because police departments don’t want us to know" The FBI says 461, but many people suspect it's closer to 1,000 http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-its-a-crime-that-we-dont-know-how-many-people-police-shoot-to-death/2014/12/01/adedcb00-7998-11e4-b821-503cc7efed9e_story.html What America’s police departments don’t want you to know By Eugene Robinson Opinion writer December 1 at 8:42 PM Michael Brown’s death was part of a tragic and unacceptable pattern: Police officers in the United States shoot and kill civilians in shockingly high numbers. How many killings are there each year? No one can say for sure, because police departments don’t want us to know. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, in 2013 there were 461 “justifiable homicides” by police — defined as “the killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty.” In all but three of these reported killings, officers used firearms. The true number of fatal police shootings is surely much higher, however, because many law enforcement agencies do not report to the FBI database. Attempts by journalists to compile more complete data by collating local news reports have resulted in estimates as high as 1,000 police killings a year. There is no way to know how many victims, like Brown, were unarmed. By contrast, there were no fatal police shootings in Great Britain last year. Not one. In Germany, there have been eight police killings over the past two years. In Canada — a country with its own frontier ethos and no great aversion to firearms — police shootings average about a dozen a year. Liberals and conservatives alike should be outraged at the frequency with which police in this country use deadly force. There is no greater power that we entrust to the state than the license to take life. To put it mildly, misuse of this power is at odds with any notion of limited government. I realize that the great majority of police officers never fire their weapons in the line of duty. Most cops perform capably and honorably in a stressful, dangerous job; 27 were killed in 2013, according to the FBI. Easy availability of guns means that U.S. police officers — unlike their counterparts in Britain, Japan or other countries where there is appropriate gun control — must keep in mind the possibility that almost any suspect might be packing heat. But any way you look at it, something is wrong. Perhaps the training given officers is inadequate. Perhaps the procedures they follow are wrong. Perhaps an “us vs. them” mentality estranges some police departments from the communities they are sworn to protect. Whatever the reason, it is hard to escape the conclusion that police in this country are much too quick to shoot. We’ve seen the heartbreaking results most recently in the fatal shooting of 28-year-old Akai Gurley, an unarmed man who was suspected of no crime, in the stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project, and the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was waving a toy gun around a park in Cleveland. Which brings me to the issue of race. USA Today analyzed the FBI’s “justifiable homicide” statistics over several years and found that, of roughly 400 reported police killings annually, an average of 96 involved a white police officer killing a black person. Two years ago, D. Brian Burghart, the editor and publisher of the Reno (Nev.) News & Review, launched FatalEncounters.org, an ambitious attempt to compile a comprehensive crowd-sourced database of fatal police shootings. Reports of the October 2012 killing of a naked, unarmed college student by University of South Alabama police made Burghart wonder how many such shootings there were; the fact that no one knew the answer made him determined to find it. Burghart recently summed up what he has learned so far: “You know who dies in the most population-dense areas? Black men,” he wrote on Gawker. “You know who dies in the least population-dense areas? Mentally ill men. It’s not to say there aren’t dangerous and desperate criminals killed across the line. But African-Americans and the mentally ill people make up a huge percentage of people killed by police.” Burghart and others who have attempted to count and analyze police shootings shouldn’t have to do the FBI’s job. All law enforcement agencies should be required to report all uses of deadly force to the bureau, using a standardized format that allows comparisons and analysis. Police departments that have nothing to hide should be eager to cooperate. A 12-year-old boy said to have been waving a fake semi-automatic pistol in an Ohio playground dies after he was shot by police. (Reuters) The Obama administration has been laudably aggressive in pressing cities with egregiously high rates of police shootings, such as Albuquerque, to reform. But no one can really get a handle on the problem until we know its true scope. The Michael Brown case presents issues that go beyond race. An unarmed teenager was shot to death. Whatever his color, that’s just not right. Read more from Eugene Robinson’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is the b*stard who tried to flush Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act down the toilet by helping Arizona Governor Jan Brewer file a frivolous lawsuit in Federal Court. Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act is Prop 203. My message to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is shut the f*ck up until you government tyrants obey the law. And for that matter Arizona police are still routinely arresting Arizona medical marijuana patients for imaginary crimes which are legal under Prop 203. The cops were arresting patients for using hashish until an ACLU lawsuit stopped that. The cops still are arresting anyone with a medical marijuana card for DUI, even though Prop 203 says "marijuana metabolites" can't be used to get a DUI conviction. Sadly the pigs are not obey the law and a lawsuit will be needed to stop this police tyranny. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/24/horne-phoenix-leaders-advocate-peace-ferguson-grand-jury/70060310/ Horne, Phoenix leaders advocate peace as Ferguson decision nears Justin Price, The Republic | azcentral.com 5:10 p.m. MST November 24, 2014 Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne and civil-rights leaders gathered Monday afternoon to urge for peaceful demonstrations in anticipation of the Ferguson Grand Jury verdict. "Violence or disorder would subtract from any message people want to send," Horne told reporters. The St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office is expected to announce whether the jury indicted Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown at about 7 p.m. Arizona time. At least one planned demonstration would be taking place in Phoenix. National Action Network's Maricopa County Chapter will meet outside the federal courthouse in downtown Phoenix within an hour of the announcement. Rev. Jarrett Maupin, a civil-rights advocate, said Monday afternoon that the best method to demonstrate is through marching and voting, not violence. "We are just reiterating the need for there to be no violence in the city and for individuals to practice civil disobedience," he said Just as important, according to human rights activist Art Mobley, is that police and protesters be respectful of each other. "We are quite concerned about the gravity of this issue and and the weight that it's taken on in the country," Mobley said. "I would encourage law enforcement officers here in this community to practice restraint, to be extra sensitive."
Michigan cops shake down dangerous criminal who has his hands in is pockets!!!!! Jesus, don't these pigs have any REAL criminals to hunt down??? This reminds me of when I was falsely arrested on Oct 17, 2014 by Chandler Police Officer Ariel Werther. I was never told why I was arrested, handcuffed, searched, had my camera shut off, and had my 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 14th Amendment Constitutional rights violated. I put a link to that at the very end of these articles. http://www.cnet.com/news/two-phone-standoff-after-cop-stops-man-for-walking-with-hands-in-pockets/ Two-phone standoff after cop stops man for 'walking with hands in pockets' by Chris Matyszczyk @ChrisMatyszczyk December 1, 2014 7:28 AM PST We once thought that, in the future, we'd all be filming each other. That future is now. And sometimes we're doing it to prove that what happened to us really happened. In the latest cell phone footage of an encounter between a police officer and a citizen, both parties decide to pull out their phones and record for posterity. What will the future make of it? The footage shows a police officer in Pontiac, Mich., stopping a man for apparently suspicious behavior. What was the man doing? Walking with his hands in his pockets. The man instantly pulls out his phone and starts recording the encounter. Uploaded originally to the Facebook page of Brandon McKean on Thanksgiving Day, it's yet another bracing reminder of what sometimes goes on between authority figures and those they deem suspicious. African-American men, for example. There is no evidence that McKean did anything wrong. However, the officer explains: "You're making people nervous." When McKean wonders what he's done, the officer replies: "Yeah, they said you had your hands in your pockets." As he's saying this, the officer pulls out his own iPhone and begins to film McKean. A bystander must have looked at this scene and wondered. Two men pointing cell phones at each other in the middle of a cold street, as they talk. As McKean expresses outrage that walking with your hands in your pockets on a cold day is cause for people to call the police, the officer insists: "Well, we do have a lot of robberies around here." McKean explains that he's making sure to get this on camera. "Me too," replies the officer. Once it's established there is no cause for McKean to be stopped, the officer and he high-five, with the hands that aren't holding their phones. McKean says he's mad less at the officer than at whoever called the police. The action happened on Thanksgiving Day and since it was posted, it has enjoyed more than 2.7 million views on Facebook -- plus more than 200,000 on YouTube. Would the encounter have proceeded any differently if McKean hadn't begun to film? Perhaps not. Recently, an Iowa police officer stopped a driver and tried to accuse him of being a pot smoker because he played frisbee golf. Even though he knew he was being filmed, the officer continued his questionable line of questioning. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told me that McKean's video was an edited version of what actually occurred. He said: The 911 call received by the Oakland County Dispatch Center originated from a nearby business that had been a victim, as well as its employees, of seven robberies. The caller and his employees were concerned about the individual who had walked by the front window of the business five or six times, while looking inside with his hands in his pockets. Fearing for their safety, the business dialed 911 and the Deputy responded. In the unedited version of the event, the individual stated that if he had called the police on a suspicious person, he would expect the police to respond, check the area, and talk to the suspicious person being called about. The Deputy did not detain or pat down the individual and considering the nature of the call responded in a very restrained and professional manner. Bouchard added that the deputy had fully explained why 911 had been called with reference to him. Clearly, the videos that gain more attention are the ones in which one party or another is acting unusually. However, it seems that it's becoming the norm to film every encounter with the police, just as some police departments are considering whether to equip all their officers with bodycams. Is this progress? Or does it show how little trust there is left in society today? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/29/1348338/-Man-Stopped-For-Walking-While-Black-With-His-Hands-In-His-Pockets Sat Nov 29, 2014 at 07:13 PM PST Man Stopped For Walking While Black With His Hands In His Pockets by WFBMMFollow Brandon McKean was actually stopped on Thanksgiving Day. His crime? Walking down the street with his hands in his pockets. The cop said he was making people nervous. BTW, it was 33 degrees in Pontiac Michigan on Thanksgiving Day. And yes, Brandon is black. I went to his Facebook page and checked. You cannot make this stuff up! To anyone who says racial profiling is a lie? Here ya go. Enjoy! According to The Pontiac Tribune: Police Detain Michigan Man on Thanksgiving for ‘Walking with Hands in Pockets’ As if we needed another example of the madness that is our burgeoning police state to surface this week, a man from Michigan was detained Thursday under suspicion of walking with his hands in his pockets in freezing temperatures. If you weren’t aware that walking with your hands in your pockets is a crime, it’s because it isn’t. But that didn’t stop the officer from detaining the man. The incident occurred at 4:30pm on Thanksgiving day in the city of Pontiac, when Brandon McKean was walking on Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard and Michigan Avenue, and was detained and questioned by the police officer. The temperature in Pontiac reached a high of 33 degrees on Thanksgiving. Here's a transcript. You won't believe this crap: Brandon McKean: (filming) All right, well what? Cop: You were walking by. Brandon McKean: Okay. Cop: (speaking to dispatch .... unintelligible) Brandon McKean: Walking by and doing what? Cop: Well, you were making people nervous. Brandon McKean: By walking by? Cop: (takes out camera phone) Yeah, they said you had your hands in your pockets. Brandon McKean: WOW. Walking by with your hands in your pockets makes people nervous to call the police? When it's snowing outside? Cop: They did. Brandon McKean. Okay. Cop: So are you okay? Brandon McKean: I'm fine. How 'bout you? Cop: I'm good. Brandon McKean: All right. Cop: What are you up to today? Brandon McKean: Walking with my hands in my pockets. Walking. Cop: Is that an inconvenience to talk to me right now? Brandon McKean: Hell yeah, just because of the whole police situation going on across the country. This is outrageous that you would let somebody tell you, 'Oh, there's somebody walking down the street with their hands in their pockets.' There's 10,000 people in Pontiac right now with their hands in their pockets, so how many--" Cop: You're right, but we do have a lot of robberies, so..." YES. YES, he actually went there. I'm just...speechless. You wonder why minorities are angry? This is why. It's called fatigue. It wears on the mind, body, and soul. A man can't even walk down the street WITH HIS HANDS IN HIS POCKETS in freezing weather. This is the kind of nonsense that could have ended with another black man dead because situations like this can escalate. God only knows what would have happened if his backup had arrived. This has to stop! http://mic.com/articles/105398/michigan-cop-stops-black-man-for-walking-with-hands-in-his-pockets-in-freezing-weather Michigan Cop Stops Black Man for Walking With Hands in his Pockets in the Freezing Cold Jared Keller's avatar image By Jared Keller November 30, 2014 We're entering the dead of winter, and temperatures are beginning to dip below freezing across the country. But if you're a black man, don't bother putting your hands in your pockets for warmth — someone may call the police on you for "looking suspicious." Pontiac, Michigan resident Brandon McKean discovered this on Thanksgiving Day after a police officer stopped and question him while he was out on a walk. The officer said he was responding to a call from a concerned resident regarding McKean's presence in his neighborhood. McKean posted this video that captures his interaction with the police on his Facebook page and YouTube. Source: YouTube "You were walking by ... you were making people nervous," the officer says when McKean asks him why he was stopped. You'll notice that the officer whips out his own iPhone to record the incident after McKean starts recording on his own phone. "By walking by?" asks McKean. "Yes, they said you had your hands in your pockets," answers the officer. "Wow, walking by having your hands in your pockets makes people nervous to call the police when it's snowing outside?" responds McKean, incredulous. "Yeah," the officer says calmly, before continuing to question McKean. "What are you up to today?" "Walking, with my hands in my pockets," responds a clearly pissed off McKean. "Is it an inconvenience talking to me right now?" asks the officer. "Hell yes," answers McKean, noting "the whole police situation going on across the country" in reference to protests over police brutality following the grand jury decision in Ferguson, Missouri. "This is outrageous that you would let somebody tell you 'there's somebody on out the street with their hands in their pockets.' There's 10,000 people in Pontiac right now with their hands in their pockets!" The officer defends his actions: "You're right, but we do have a lot of robberies, so I'm just checking on you." To his credit, the police officer notes that he was simply responding to a call made by someone else in the neighborhood, and both the officer and McKean conclude the tense encounter on a conciliatory, relatively positive note. "I just want to make sure I get this on camera," McKean says. "Me too!" says the officer, pointing to his camera. "This is for my safety and yours," says McKean. "I'm being very respectable, you're being very respectable ... I'm just really mad at the situation of whoever called." And here's the broader lesson of McKean's relatively pleasant run-in with the Pontiac police: If you see a black person walking through your neighborhood with his hands in his pockets, don't just assume they're up to no good and call the police for no good reason — especially if it's freezing outside. ----- Fore more on that on Oct 17, 2014 false arrest by Chandler Police Officer Ariel Werther see http://bad-chandler-cop.100webspace.net/false_arrest_oct_17_2014/0_index.php
Obama: Don't want 'militarized' police culture F*ck you Emperor Obama, Uncle Sam is the CAUSE of this problem!!!! Again the Federal government is the cause of this problem, not the solution to it!!!! 1) Uncle Sam has given and is still giving literally billions of dollars of military equipment to local cops so they can use it to terrorize us serfs. Does Sheriff Joe really need tanks and machine guns to round up a few Latinos that snuck across the border and are working as dishwashers or burger flippers at McDonalds or maids at a local hotel doing work Americans refuse to do??? 2) Uncle Sam has also given billions of dollars to local cops to fight it's unconstitutional war on drugs. And that has turned America into the worlds largest police state. At the Federal level 51 percent of the people in Federal prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes according to US BOP statistics. At the State & Federal level 66 percent of the people in American prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes according to Reason Magazine. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/01/obama-dont-want-militarized-police-culture/19756249/ Obama: Don't want 'militarized' police culture Associated Press 4:45 p.m. MST December 1, 2014 WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Monday he wants to ensure the U.S. isn't building a "militarized culture" within police departments, while maintaining federal programs that provide the type of military-style equipment that were used to dispel racially charged protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Instead, the president is asking Congress for funding to buy 50,000 body cameras to record events like the shooting death of an unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown and look for ways to build trust and confidence between police and minority communities nationwide. He announced the creation of a task force to study success stories and recommend ways the government can support accountability, transparency and trust in police. With protests ongoing in Ferguson and across the country, Obama spoke to reporters at the end of a White House meeting with police, civil rights activists and local leaders and acknowledged the participants told him that there have been task forces in the past and "nothing happens." "Part of the reason this time will be different is because the president of the United States is deeply invested in making sure that this time is different," Obama said. He said he was upset to hear the young people in the meeting describe their experiences with police. "It violates my belief in what America can be to hear young people feeling marginalized and distrustful even after they've done everything right." At least for now, Obama is staying away from Ferguson in the wake of the uproar over a grand jury's decision last week not to charge Darren Wilson, the police officer who fatally shot Brown. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating possible civil rights violations that could result in federal charges, but investigators would need to satisfy a rigorous standard of proof. Justice also has launched a broad investigation into the Ferguson Police Department. Obama is proposing a three-year, $263 million spending package to increase use of body-worn cameras, expand training for law enforcement and add more resources for police department reform. The package includes $75 million to help pay for 50,000 of the small, lapel-mounted cameras to record police on the job, with state and local governments paying half the cost. Estimates vary about the precise number of full-time, sworn law enforcement officers in communities across the U.S., though some federal government reports in recent years have placed the figure at roughly 700,000. Brown's family wants to see every police officer working the streets wearing a body camera. The Rev. Al Sharpton told reporters afterward he would convey to Brown's parents what had occurred in the meeting and expressed confidence it would bring change because Obama put his "full weight behind it." "What happens after the meeting will determine whether we just had a feel-good session or whether we're moving toward change," Sharpton said. Cameras potentially could help resolve the type of disputes between police and witnesses that arose in the Ferguson shooting. Some witnesses have said Brown had his hands up when Wilson shot him. The officer who shot him said he feared for his life when Brown hit him and reached for his gun. But there are issues to be worked out — including privacy concerns for police, suspects, victims and bystanders; legal questions over who has access to the recordings; and training to make sure officers are using the cameras and don't have them turned off at a critical time. The White House said those are the types of concerns that could be addressed by Obama's newly created Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which will include law enforcement and community leaders. The task force is being co-chaired by Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and Laurie Robinson, a professor at George Mason University and former assistant attorney general at the Justice Department. After the Brown shooting and resulting protests in August, critics questioned why police in full body armor with armored trucks responded to dispel demonstrators. Obama seemed to sympathize when ordering a review of the programs that provide the equipment. "There is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement and we don't want those lines blurred," Obama said in August. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the president concluded he does not want to try to repeal the programs that are authorized by Congress because they have proven to be useful in many cases, citing the response to the Boston Marathon bombing. "But it is not clear that there is a consistency with regard to the way that these programs are implemented, structured and audited, and that's something that needs to be addressed," Earnest said. The White House review shows the wide scope of the programs — $18 billion in the past five years from five federal agencies, including the departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and Treasury, plus the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The report says most of the equipment the programs provide are routine — like office furniture, computers and basic firearms — but about 460,000 pieces of equipment primarily used for military purposes have been provided to local police, including 92,442 small arms, 44,275 night-vision devices, 5,235 Humvees, 617 mine-resistant vehicles and 616 aircraft. Obama said he will issue an executive order that will require federal agencies that run the programs to consult with law enforcement and civil rights and civil liberties organizations and recommend changes within four months to make sure the programs are accountable and transparent. "We're going to make sure that we're not building a militarized culture inside our local law enforcement," Obama said. He said the goal instead is to ensure that "crime goes down while community trust in the police goes up." Demands for police to wear the cameras have increased across the country since Brown's death. Some officers in the St. Louis suburb have since started wearing the cameras, and the New York Police department became the largest department in the U.S. to adopt the technology when it launched a pilot program in early September. A report from the Justice Department, which had been in the works before the Ferguson shooting, said there's evidence both police and civilians behave better when they know there are cameras around. In a recent Cambridge University study, the police department in Rialto, California — a city of about 100,000— saw an 89 percent decline in the number of complaints against officers in a yearlong trial using the cameras. The number of times the police used force against suspects also declined.
More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our religious leaders, government masters and police??? http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/12/01/maricopa-county-community-college-district-fined-4-million-investigation/19748565/ Maricopa County college district hit with $4M fine Mary Beth Faller, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:14 p.m. MST December 1, 2014 Maricopa County Community College District The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday announced that Paradise Valley Community College will have to pay $4 million to settle claims that a program it ran misused federal funding. The fine will come out of the college's operating budget but will not affect any student programs, spokeswoman Candace Oehler said Monday. Although it's unclear how much insurance will cover, the college several years ago began setting aside funds in anticipation of a possible fine, she said. The case dates back to 2011, when the federal government began investigating student work from 2007 through 2010 with Project Ayuda, which was administered at the college. The program, part of the AmeriCorps initiative, offered financial awards for students in exchange for services such as tutoring children and community cleanups. Authorities accused the Maricopa County Community College District of improperly certifying students' hours and improperly receiving grant funds to administer the project. For example, a 2010 audit found that hours were not accurately recorded during a spring-break service-learning trip to San Diego. The audit found that 466 time sheets had math discrepancies, and more than 1,200 appeared to have been altered. That audit, as well as audits in 2007 and 2008, had flagged problems in the program, which involved more than 1,000 students, but officials never corrected them. The fine settles the matter without the district admitting liability. The college district's board approved the fine Nov. 25.
When they talk about efficient government think of this!!!!! Jesus, it took the Arizona government 120 years to figure out these folks were squatting illegally on state property. Personally I suspect that is BS, and the state of Arizona wants to steal their land. I could be wrong on that. But most of the time I make predictions about government thievery and corruption my predictions are reasonably accurate. For those of you who take the light rail to Tempe this property is on the south side of the Salt River to the west of the light rail tracks as you enter Tempe. Normally the Salt River is dry and contains nothing but rattlesnakes and sand, but the royal rulers of Tempe damned it up and built what we call Tempe Town Toilet or Tempe Town Lake as they call it. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2014/11/29/historic-junkyard-adobe-tempe/19687355/ State: Tempe family has been squatting for 120 years Richard Ruelas, The Republic | azcentral.com 3:10 p.m. MST December 1, 2014 The plaster is falling off the 1860s adobe home Steve Sussex's great grandparents build near downtown Tempe.. Sussex is battling the state, and will most likely battle the city of Tempe soon, on whether his family gets to keep it. The adobe house was built back around 1877 by a Mexican immigrant when the area along the Salt River was mostly farmland. There were no fences or signs as there are now, indicating that the land belonged to the Arizona Territory, entrusted to it by the federal government. As the years passed, the adobe house stayed put. The city of Tempe changed around it. The river was dammed up and stopped flowing. The area around the dried-up riverbed became easily ignored. Who would want to live by the dried-up riverbed, where people dumped trash in the shadow of a railroad trestle? The dirt just outside the adobe house stopped holding crops and hogs and started filling up with construction equipment, the new preferred trade. Then, the water flowed again, filling a man-made lake. The area drew restaurants, bars and high-rise condominiums. Meanwhile, the adobe house became lost in a place that started looking more like a salvage lot and, increasingly, more out of place. Today, the lot around the house is home to, among other things, three motor homes, the cab of a semitruck, a bus, an antique car, two jet-powered skis, two attachments that would turn a bicycle into a pedicab and one tub of motor oil. Across the street to the south, a multimillion-dollar restaurant has been constructed. Just east of the house, another million-dollar restaurant is being built. And while the blocks around it have been subjects of scores of real-estate deals, the adobe house and its junk-covered lot have passed hands only once. The place was sold by a family named Gonzalez to a family named Martinez. That happened in 1892. Jesus Martinez died at that adobe home. So did his grandson. The great-grandson, Steve Sussex, was born in the adobe home and spent his childhood there. His children, the great-great-grandchildren of Jesus Martinez, have lived off and on in the adobe home in recent years. One lives there right now. But probably not for much longer. Arizona has prevailed in court action that essentially says the Sussex family has trespassed on state land for more than 120 years. Sussex's attorney has appealed the case to the Arizona Supreme Court. The high court has yet to decide if it will hear the case. But even if he wins, Sussex sees the end is in sight. The land is too valuable to be used the way he has used it for decades — filling it up, spot by spot, with with motor homes, building supplies and engine parts. "It's a high-rent district now," he said during a tour of his property. Sussex, 74, only hopes that when he does move, he is treated as a longtime owner being forced off his land. He wants a cash settlement. The state says he's a squatter. He's due nothing. A historic junkyard "Let me see if I can find the light switch without tripping over something," Sussex said as he walked in what was his grandmother's bedroom, part of the original adobe structure. What Sussex feared tripping over was all the stuff, relics left behind from those who have inhabited this historic property. The Gonzalez-Martinez house, as it is known on the National Register of Historic Places, is not a typical piece of architectural history. RELATED: More Tempe history: Hayden Flour Mill name revived The floors have boxes of videotapes and knick-knacks stacked on unsteady cabinets. Some windows and doors have been boarded up to keep out drifters, efforts that have proved partly successful. And the exterior of the property has taken on the cluttered look of the interior. Sussex, who was raised in the home, said he moved out in the 1960s and into a Tempe neighborhood less than a mile away. However, the dirt lot around the adobe home became handy. In back of it, he built additions to the original homes, as well as a shed or two for tools and storage. In the 1980s, he started running a painting and drywall company out of the property. He leased offices to another contracting company that parked its vehicles on the lot. He also became fond of racing motorcycles and midget cars. The 1-acre parcel became an outdoor garage. "I'm kind of a junker at heart," Sussex said. Once he retired, the lot became less organized. "(My wife) don't let me keep this stuff around the house, so I have to keep it here," Sussex said. A recent incomplete census of the property showed the motorhomes, the truck cab and the bus and a variety of other vehicles. There's lumber, bricks and two ovens. Sussex said he spotted a stack of windows at a construction site ready to be thrown out. They were too good to become trash, he said. So, he hauled them here, figuring that someone he knew could eventually find some use for them. Then, there's the furniture. Sussex looks for discarded chairs and couches that would fit into the collection around the fire pit. Sussex gathers friends there to drink beer. The fire pit draws the attention of the residents in the condominium complex across First Street. Firefighters come responding to complaints. They tell Sussex he's not doing anything wrong, but they have to check it out because somebody complained. "Them people over there hate looking over here, and I like it when they hate that," he said. "They're looking at the junkyard," Sussex said. City steps in Before the city created Tempe Town Lake, the area around the Salt River bed, dry since the construction of Roosevelt Dam, was no showplace. "It's where old refrigerators and things went to die," said Dennis Cahill, a former Tempe city councilman who grew up in Tempe. "It was pretty nasty." The riverbed was the spot where industrial businesses, like Sussex's contracting company, flourished. Then, four developers bought the neighboring property, which had held a dive bar called Sail Inn. The four thought the recently opened Tempe Town Lake would bring new development to the area. One of them, an attorney Sussex recalls, came over and talked to him about buying his land. Sussex said the thought was the city would abandon the dead-end street between the two lots and make for "one whole giant piece of property." Sussex said he told them he didn't want to sell. And looking back, "that's what started the whole big rigmarole," he said. "They went to the state and started stirring (things) up." Joseph Lewis, a developer and former City Council member, said he wasn't the reason for Sussex's troubles. Although, from the sound of it, he sort of wishes he were. "He's been trying for years to get a payday on property he never had title to," Lewis said. "I can't go plant myself on a city park and say years later that just because I've been there awhile that I own it." Lewis said he tried to purchase Sussex property in 2007, thinking of assembling a parcel of land that would include the upscale Traxx nightclub and a residential tower. But Lewis was well aware of the trouble behind the Sussex parcel. When he was a member of the council, from 1992 to 2000, he said, the property was discussed at City Hall. "The city's always been trying to find a resolution to that," Lewis said. Records and legal papers show that Tempe first approached the state about the parcels in 1988. The state agreed to sell the trust land at auction, and the city was the highest bidder. But there was a dispute with the railroad, which had a right-of-way along its tracks adjoining the parcel. The deal was halted for years. This was around the time the state first took steps to get Sussex off the land. Court records show that the State Land Department ordered Sussex off the property in 1992. Lewis said he remembered it being at Tempe's behest. "The state never really paid attention to it, it was such a small piece of land," Lewis said. "The city said, 'Can you work on getting this taken care of?' " The city reached a deal with the railroad in 2002. The deal made the city owner of the eastern half of the Sussex property, land that includes the adobe house. In 2004, the State Land Department sent Sussex a letter. It asked him again to leave the property and sign a deed that relinquished any claim of ownership. He refused. The state filed legal action against Sussex in April 2005. Steve Sussex strolls through a dirt lot. Tucked away in the lot is an adobe home, on the corner of Farmer Avenue and 1st Street, that his great-grandfather built in the late 1800s, one the city deems historic. Sussex is battling the state, and will most likely battle the city of Tempe soon, on whether his family gets to keep it.(Photo: Charlie Leight/The Republic) The court case The tussle has dragged on ever since. And the arguments reach back to the establishment of the Arizona Territory in 1863. At that time, the government ordered the territory's land surveyed. Each square-mile section was given a number, and the federal government decreed that certain numbered sections be given to the territories and eventual states for use in funding schools. By the time Mariano Gonzalez, a farmer, built his adobe house in 1877, the land had already been surveyed as part of Section 16 and had been given to Arizona for its sovereign use. Gonzalez worked for Charles Hayden, who had established a ferry service across the Salt River and would establish a flour mill powered by the river's flow, according to Tempe's historical office. Jesus Martinez bought the home in 1892. According to Tempe's historic preservation office, Martinez would raise hogs on the land with Carl Hayden, son of Charles Hayden, who would become a long-serving senator from Arizona. An Englishman named Alfred Sussex, who came to Tempe by way of Canada to work on construction of the first railroad bridge over the Salt River, married Belen Martinez. They would end up living at the adobe home, which had the address of 302 W. 1st St. During the Great Depression, hobos would hop off the freight train and stay at shacks that the couple had built on the property, at least one of which still stands. In 1930, according to state records filed in court, Rosario Martinez, mother of Belen, applied for a lease for the property — legally known as Lot 1E of Section 16. She was granted the lease. But it was canceled for non-payment in 1934. Stephen Sussex, the son of Belen, married a woman named Betty and the couple had a son, Stephen, in 1940. He grew up his whole life believing, wrongly, that his family owned the land. At the time, the adobe house stood on railroad right-of-way. The western half of the property — the part that contained the outhouse and the clothesline — was on state trust land. In 1956, the land was sold at auction. Belen Sussex filed a notice with the state saying she had built structures on the land and wanted compensation. The state paid her $1,510. The land was sold to Ernest C. Mohamed, who was a fixture in stock-car racing and ran an earthmoving company on the site. The state took back the land for non-payment 15 years later. Sussex claims his family still treated the land as theirs during this time. He said Mohamed paid his family for a right-of-way to land near the river bottom where he parked his trucks. Sometime in the 1970s, Sussex started up his contracting business. By 1986, he leased out office space and land to Cahill Contracting, court records show. The business was co-owned by the former city councilman, Cahill and his brother. The state said that activity was the first clue they had that Sussex was on the land. The state's legal case was fairly simple: The family had no documents to show they owned the land; there was ample evidence to show they were trespassing on what had been trust land since 1860. Sussex's attorney, Jack Wilenchek, argued history and common sense. In his opening argument before a jury in August 2005, Wilenchek said, "The Sussex family has been on this land since 1892." He repeated the year 1892 while banging on the lectern. He then pointed to the state seal above the judge's bench, and the year 1912, commemorating statehood. "They were here before Arizona was even a state," he said. The court had already ruled before the trial that the Sussex family had trespassed. The jury was simply asked to determine how much money the family owed the state. Arizona asked for around $450,000. The jury awarded the state $1,500. The state enforced the court's ruling of trespassing by erecting a chain-link fence around what it deemed the borders of the property. The fence stops when it hits the boundaries of the parcel owned by Tempe. Sussex drives around the fence with his pickup to get to his property. His attorney, Wilenchek, appealed the Superior Court ruling of trespassing to the Court of Appeals. The thrust of Wilenchek's legal argument is that the state knew that the Sussex family was on its land but didn't do anything about it until 2005. If the Land Department had brought a case earlier, the Sussex family might have had a chance to unearth documents that could prove rightful ownership. But because the state waited so long, it made for an unjust case. In legal terms, he was arguing the concept known as "laches." The state said — and the court has so far upheld — that "laches" doesn't apply here. Maybe it would apply if the state were buying or selling an ordinary piece of land. But this land is part of a sovereign duty found in the state's originating documents. State arguments and court rulings have emphasized that the state Constitution can't be ignored. Wilenchek's briefs have a flair for the dramatic, quoting both "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and John Locke. The final words in the appeal to the state Supreme Court are: "(W)here the law ends, tyranny begins." Meanwhile, the near-decade of legal wrangling has not slowed down development around the parcel. Vacant parcels are rare in Tempe, said Lewis, the developer and former council member. And the two next to the Sussex property have proved valuable despite the eyesore. Sam Fox, owner of a Phoenix-based chain of regional restaurants — Sauce, Olive and Ivy, Arrogant Butcher — purchased an old furniture warehouse on Farmer Avenue and First Street 18 months ago. Culinary Dropout at the Farmers Art District, the restaurant with the biggest kitchen in the Fox empire, is set to open in early December. Fox Restaurant Concepts owner Sam Fox gives a tour of his newest location, Culinary Dropout's kitchen, which will be the largest in his restaurant group.(Photo: Jessie Wardarski/The Republic, Jessie Wardarski/ The Republic) Meanwhile, the old Sail Inn, on the opposite corner of Farmer and First, is becoming the Lodge, a high-end tavern run by Scottsdale-based chef Aaron May. "Only in Tempe," Lewis said, "could Sam Fox look at a building like that, knowing there was a junkyard across the street, and decide this is where he's going to build his biggest property to date." Downtown reimagined One late afternoon in November, Tempe's mayor and council, along with city leaders and businesspeople, walked a red carpet into the newly built meeting space at Culinary Dropout at Farmer Arts District. Guests snacked on pretzel fondue, goat cheese and kale salad and downed grapefruit cocktails. They pointed out the original wood beams from the factory that Fox, the restaurateur, was able to preserve. MORE: New name for Mill Avenue district There was polite applause as Kate Borders, executive director of the merchants group, christened the rebirth of downtown Tempe. "We hope Farmer Avenue becomes the next generation of what Mill Avenue is today," she said. Across the street, Mike Ghormley, 68, a friend of Sussex's, was working on an engine. He had been looking around for a knife or other sharp object. He wanted to cut off the top of an antifreeze bottle and catch motor oil with it. "I know a lot of people would like to see it gone," Ghormley said. "But then again, this has always been an industrial property." In the restaurant, after the speeches, Mayor Mark Mitchell gave a brief interview with a radio reporter saying how he was glad Tempe was "repurposing the area." Asked by The Republic specifically about the Sussex property across the street, Mitchell said he didn't know the status of it. "It's been in dispute for years, but I don't know what's going on with it," said Mitchell. Robin Arredondo-Savage, a council member, said her family had known the Sussex family. She said it was important to hold on to the city's past, "but yet progress into the future, too." "It's about a good balance," she added. She called over the city manager, Andrew Ching, for an update as she said she also wasn't sure of the details. Ching said the city was waiting for the state's legal battle to finish. But if the state does prevail, "we will make the same arguments, sure," he said. "Whatever rights they have to one-half of the parcel would be the same as whatever rights we have to our half of the parcel." Arredondo-Savage said she wouldn't want to boot Sussex, though. "You don't want to step on anyone's toes," she said. "We want to work with them." Ugly history In 1986, Tempe petitioned to place the Gonzalez-Martinez house on the National Register of Historic Places. The adobe structure, according to the Office of Historic Preservation, was one of only three structures remaining from the first 10 years of the city's existence. It is a "rare local example of a house type illustrative of the lifestyle and settlement pattern of the predominantly Mexican population of early Tempe," the city said. While it is rare and illustrative, it is a structure only a historian could love. The adobe walls appear sturdy. But the wood frame at the roofline is rotted in spots. Most of the wood shingles on the roof are gone. Sussex first tried covering up the roof with cardboard. Last year, he put on corrugated tin. Sussex frequents Casey Moore's, an Irish bar that has also been deemed historic. The owner of the bar told Sussex that he received a plaque to put on his building. He asked Sussex when he would get a similar plaque. Sussex laughed, recalling the story. "My place looks so ugly," he said, "they don't want to put no plaque on it." Sussex stood by a guardrail in front of the house. Behind him, construction crews put finishing touches on Culinary Dropout. To his right, a light-rail train zoomed past. Freshly broken glass lay in the dirt a few yards in front of him, a casualty of Sussex trying to move a busted dining-room table during a tour. Sussex thought about what will happen to the house when someone else inevitably owns it. "I think they'd probably bulldoze it, because it's worth more money to the city than to do something," he said. "But it'd be a shame. It is history." For more on Tempe Town Toilet check out: http://tempetowntoilet.100webspace.net And just for fun check out the Tempe Cesspool for the Arts: http://tempe-cesspool-for-the-arts.tripod.com/
Community college course: Goverment Ripoff 101 More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our religious leaders, government masters and police??? Again we see government is mostly about MONEY and almost nothing about being a public servant. I.E. money to extract from us serfs and give to the special interest groups that helped these elected officials or anointed bureaucrats get into power. http://www.azcentral.com/story/ejmontini/2014/12/01/maricopa-county-community-college-department-of-justice-lawsuit-4-million-whistleblower/19745063/ Community college course: Goverment Ripoff 101 EJ Montini, columnist | azcentral.com 2:57 p.m. MST December 1, 2014 It's not listed in the official curriculum but it appears that one of the most valuable -- and now costly -- lessons taught recently at Maricopa County Community Colleges was how to rip off the federal government. According to the U.S. Justice Department, MCC will pay $4.08 million to settle allegations and a whistleblower lawsuit claiming false claims were submitted for community service grants to students at Paradise Valley Community College. The controversy swirled around false claims involving AmericCorp grants. The DOJ described it this way in a press release: "In order to receive an AmeriCorps education award, a student had to meet certain service-hour requirements. MCCCD allegedly improperly certified that students had completed the required number of service hours so that they would earn an education award. This resulted in the Corporation for National and Community Service providing education awards to these students. MCCCD also allegedly improperly received grant funds from CNCS to administer the project. "'Our internal process uncovered MCCCD's mismanagement, and we worked with the Justice Department to ensure that taxpayer dollars were recovered,' said CNCS's General Counsel Valerie Green. 'This is an example of how interagency collaboration works.' "'Taxpayers are justifiably outraged when a community fails to receive promised services because national service funds were misused,' said CNCS's Inspector General Deborah J. Jeffrey. 'We hope that this settlement will deter other grantees from similar misconduct.'" On Monday, PVCC President Paul Dale issued a statement reading, "Throughout the investigation, the college cooperated fully with the government and expressed our willingness to make AmeriCorps whole. Stewardship is a core value of our college, and we are committed to responsibly managing the assets and resources entrusted to us. We take the public trust and confidence very seriously, and strive to act accordingly. We will continue to take all appropriate actions to ensure those standards are maintained." Actually, the might want to raise those standards just a little bit. If there's any good news to come from such a story, it is that the whistleblower in this case was NOT punished, but actually rewarded. The lawsuit was filed under the False Claims Act by Christine Hunt, an MCCCD employee. According to the DOJ a private citizen can sue on behalf of the government under the act and share in any recovery. Hunt's share is a whopping $775,827. Good for her. Hunt's story is a lesson worth teaching at every community college and at every other educational institution. It comes in two parts: 1. Doing the right thing is its own reward. 2. Every once in awhile, it really, really pays.
Being a pathological liar is a requirement for elected officials???? "A year ago, Gov. Jan Brewer promised she'd leave office with a structurally balanced budget. Instead, she'll hand incoming Gov. Doug Ducey a budget shortfall that could top $1 billion." http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/12/01/brewer-predicts-tough-budget-cuts/19746721/ Departing Gov. Brewer will offer her own budget to remedy $1B shortfall Gov. Jan Brewer does her final turn lighting the Capitol Christmas tree. Mary Jo Pitzl/The Republic Alia Beard Rau and Mary Jo Pitzl, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:51 p.m. MST December 1, 2014 A year ago, Gov. Jan Brewer promised she'd leave office with a structurally balanced budget. Instead, she'll hand incoming Gov. Doug Ducey a budget shortfall that could top $1 billion. Brewer's staff says there's no way a year ago they could have imagined how slowly Arizona would recover from the Great Recession. But they aren't washing their hands of the problem. Brewer on Monday announced she will develop her own budget. Ducey can then choose to use all or parts of it, or provide something entirely his own. He is required by the state Constitution to release a budget proposal by Jan. 16. During 2013 and into this year, Brewer crisscrossed the state touting the great "Arizona comeback." In the years since she has been governor, she liked to say, Arizona went from being $3 billion in the hole to having a $1 billion surplus and a "rainy-day fund" to help the state avoid a future economic crisis. She credited her sound fiscal leadership with helping the economy and state revenue rebound. Her staff was confident she would leave the state in the black, with a structurally balanced budget showing more ongoing revenue coming in than ongoing expenses going out. "We assumed that we would keep going at a 3.5, 4 percent clip for revenue growth, which was consistent with what we'd had in fiscal '13 and fiscal '12," state Budget Director John Arnold said. "Then, individual income taxes went into the tank, corporate income taxes stayed way down, and TPT (sales) taxes went off a cliff." Things stopped, he said, and they still aren't entirely sure why. "There was a little hiccup in the economy," he said. "Does it pick up again? I hope so. But we really won't know until May." According to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, Arizona faces a $520 million budget shortfall for this fiscal year and a $1 billion shortfall next fiscal year on a $9 billion budget. This includes the additional $317 million a year the courts have ordered the state to pay schools for underfunding them during the recession. The state is appealing the order. The state Constitution says the governor must produce a budget by Jan. 16. It does not specify whether that budget must come from the outgoing or incoming governor. Over the years, governors have done things differently. "They will probably take my budget drafted by staff and go in there and address the issues they feel are important," Brewer said. She declined to give details on her budget, saying it's a work in progress. "I will tell you this, there are several things that are very protected in that budget that I'll be guarding very carefully," she said, listing education, behavioral health and the newly created Department of Child Safety. "They're my priorities, and they've always been my priorities," she said. In a later interview, she said that although those areas rank high on her list, "it would probably be very, very difficult" to avoid cutting their funding, given the state's dim fiscal outlook. She also said she hopes Ducey will protect the state's expanded Medicaid program, something Ducey has been skeptical about but appears willing to accept for the next two years while a generous federal match is in place. "I'm hopeful he will maintain the status quo on maintaining Medicaid," Brewer said. "It helps the budget, and it helps vulnerable people." Brewer also offered the prospect of a Christmas gift for the state's economy, saying there will be some "exciting" economic developments in the coming weeks. Ducey has created a budget study committee that includes Arnold and Brewer's policy director, Michael Hunter, among others. The two will also help Brewer develop her proposal. Ducey spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said Ducey appreciates Brewer's input. "We are obviously still really in the beginning of the process on our end," he said. "He wants more ideas on the table, not less. We really want a process that incorporates all the best ideas." Scarpinato said Ducey has already begun meeting with legislative leaders and Brewer. He expects those meetings to continue throughout the budget process. The process over the next several months is expected to be contentious despite the early communication. Ducey has offered few details so far on where he may be headed with cuts, but they will have to be deep. While the looming deficit isn't as large as it was when Brewer took office, the new governor and Legislature have fewer options. The tricks have been used. For example, state government in 2010 sold some of its buildings to investors for $999 million via bonds and leased them back for 20 years. Bond-holders now own the Arizona Supreme Court building, the House and Senate chambers, the Governor's Office and the Arizona State Hospital, among others. Typically, governments use one-time revenue from bond sales for one-time expenses, such as major construction projects. But in this case, Arizona used it for ongoing operating expenses. On top of that, Arizona taxpayers will be paying that debt, plus $616 million in interest, for the next 16 years — long after Brewer has left office. Brewer and the Legislature during that time also borrowed against future Lottery proceeds and successfully asked voters for a temporary 1-cent-per-dollar sales-tax hike. The tax hike expired more than a year ago.
Will Tempe get screwed again on the damn it purchases to damn up Tempe Town Toilet??? The last damn used for Tempe Town Toilet only lasted 10 of the 20 years it was supposed to last. When the city of Tempe asked the maker to hone it's VERBAL GUARANTEE the vendor told Tempe to F*CK OFF. Why didn't the royal rulers of Tempe get the guarantee in writing??? That story probably has something to do with bribes, oops, I mean campaign contributions. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2014/12/02/tempe-plans-two-year-warranty-year-dam/19767515/ Tempe plans two-year warranty on 50-year dam Dianna M. Náñez, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:23 p.m. MST December 1, 2014 Tempe officials say they are certain that a two-year warranty will be sufficient for the new Town Lake steel dam, which is expected to last 50 years and cost $40.8 million. Some residents aren't convinced. Engineering experts who spoke with The Arizona Republic said there are no industry standards for warranty lengths on major dam projects, as each dam is tailored to the site and function. City and contract engineers have said the structure will be the world's largest hydraulically controlled crest-gate dam and will span about 950 feet across the Salt River. Officials with the Arizona Department of Water Resources, which is charged with the dam's safety, have told The Republic that there are similar U.S. dams but that using the steel-gate technology as a primary dam structure is uncommon, as such barriers most often sit atop concrete dams, where smaller steel gates allow water to spill over. Construction on the massive project began this summer and is expected to be completed by next December. Tempe City Manager Andrew Ching said the Tempe City Council will have to vote on the dam's warranty only if the cost is $50,000 or more, which is the monetary threshold for city actions that require council approval. The two-year warranty comes with the purchase of the dam and is therefore not subject to a council vote, Ching said. Andy Goh, Tempe's deputy public works director and engineer, said city and contract engineering experts who have reviewed plans for the dam say the two-year warranty is an industry standard for major capital projects involving steel and concrete. Some residents have worried that Tempe taxpayers will pay the price for the City Council accepting a short-term warranty on a 50-year dam. That concern is heightened because the city's original Town Lake rubber dam failed in 2010, at least a decade earlier than it was supposed to. Joseph Pospicil, a longtime critic of Town Lake and the failed rubber dam, said Tempe's steel dam is a costly taxpayer-funded project that merits greater council and public scrutiny. Pospicil said he wants the council to commission a study to analyze the risks of the dam failing or deteriorating, as well as the costs of purchasing a lengthier warranty or additional insurance vs. funding a savings account to pay for future unexpected fixes. Once that study is complete, Pospicil said, the council should schedule a public hearing so residents may review and comment on the analysis prior to Tempe making a final warranty decision. Construction on the new Town Lake dam began this summer and is to be done next December. It is expected to cost $40.8 million and last 50 years, far longer than the original rubber dam.(Photo: Patrick Breen/The Republic) Previous dam burst The original dam, made of four massive rubber bladders, was completed in 1999 and incorporated technology that never had been tested in desert temperatures. It had a 10-year warranty, but the city was told the rubber bladders would last more than 20 years. Before the failure, Bridgestone Industrial Products Inc. and city leaders argued over who was at fault for not installing a structure to spray water on the dam to cool the black rubber bladders in the sweltering desert heat. An agreement was reached to install a temporary rubber dam and give the council more time to find a permanent replacement. But before a temporary fix could be installed, the rubber dam burst and spewed an estimated 1 billion gallons of water into the dry river bed, creating a muddy mess. Goh said the steel materials and construction being used for the new dam is more reliable than the rubber dam. Additionally, many components of the steel dam have separate, longer warranties, he said. "We are using very traditional construction materials … concrete and steel," Goh said. "You design it correctly, build it correctly, and it lasts a long time." An industry standard? Joseph Kulikowski, a California civil engineer and dam expert with Genterra Consultants, said that while he is not familiar with the Town Lake dam project, each dam is built specific to its location and purpose, so warranties and liabilities would depend on those details. "There is no industry standard," he said. "I've seen over 350 dams in my whole career; every one is different. You could have a warranty on just one part that's perhaps longer than necessary and just the reverse so that you could have a warranty that's very short on a critical component. You would have to look at the whole thing." Ross Boulanger, a civil-engineering professor at the University of California who has managed risk assessments of major capital projects, said that because no dam is alike, any warranty and maintenance plan must be tailored. "A manufacturer who produces a unique structure, and there is no other one like it, they don't have that history on which to know exactly how it's going to behave over 50 years of operation," he said. Boulanger said some manufacturers of major capital projects reach agreements with cities or states to operate the structure for the life of the proejct. That way they are guaranteeing their work for the life expectancy of a costly capital project, he said. It also helps guarantee the structure is maintained to the manufacturer's specifications, he said. Federal agencies are in the early stages of using independent risk assessments to review some dam designs, but that review is not required at the state level, said Tom Woosley, a program manager with the Georgia Safe Dams Program. Woosley said manufacturers typically will not warranty an entire dam because the structure involves too many components. "A large project like that (Town Lake steel dam) certainly warrants having an independent reviewer who's experienced with dams," Woosley said. "Then you just have to have faith in the individual engineers involved with it and make sure the engineer who does the design is on site during construction." Goh said city, contract and Water Resources engineers have reviewed the dam engineering plan. Water Resources has called on Tempe to contract with a separate engineering firm to independently review the novel hydraulic system that will raise and lower the steel dam gates. Tempe has received the first phase of permitting from Water Resources, which allows for foundation work, Goh said. The second phase will consider the entire dam system, including the hydraulics, and is expected in a couple of weeks, Goh said. Tempe City Council members have said they understand why residents are worried about the dam failing again. But comparing the steel dam to the rubber dam is akin to comparing apples to oranges, Councilman Kolby Granville said. "The difference with the rubber bladder and the steel dam is the rubber is designed to fail eventually," Granville said. "The Empire State Building is still standing, and it's more than 50 years old, and that's because it's built out of steel." During the last council update in May, staff said Tempe's property-insurance policy would cover damages up to an estimated $41 million. Mayor Mark Mitchell said he felt reassured that the new dam would be protected at a rate that equates to what it will cost to build. The policy includes coverage for natural disasters. However, it does not cover the dam for wear and tear, gradual deterioration or a defective design, according to the May report. The dam contractor, Tempe-based PCL Construction, said the company could offer an insurance policy through a third party to cover the dam beyond the standard two-year warranty, according to the May report. Goh, the deputy public works director, said he was not aware of Tempe pursuing the manufacturer's extended insurance. The council supported the staff recommendation in May not to seek further insurance coverage through the dam manufacturer. Staff said the council also could seek additional insurance through the city's current provider. Costs for the additional insurance were not included in the May report, but Ching said financial estimates could be sought if the council directed staff to seek insurance beyond the two-year warranty. Granville told The Republic in November that if the dam deteriorates earlier than expected, the city could sue for compensation. "Politically, it plays well to say we have to insure our assets, but it's not factually accurate, because it's not insurance we need in this situation," he said. "In the case of this particular project, this particular type of structure, if it fails, it's a product-liability lawsuit." However, legal options were a challenge for Tempe officials who dealt with the original rubber dam, which failed after 10 years despite claims it would last more than 20. Tempe officials negotiated with Bridgestone when the rubber dam began deteriorating years earlier than expected, but the parties argued over who was at fault for the problems. Tempe is paying for the steel dam as a long-term replacement. As part of an agreement with the manufacturer, Tempe is using a rented rubber dam from Bridgestone that must be removed by December 2015 or the city could face fines. Five facts about Town Lake Each of the eight steel dam gates will be 106 feet long, 17 feet high and 232,000 pounds. Each of the dam's 16 hydraulic cylinders will be 27 feet long. The average depth of the lake is 12.5 feet; its deepest point is 19 feet. The lake holds about 977 million gallons of water. Evaporation each year costs Town Lake about the same amount of water used by two golf courses or a 1,000-acre alfalfa field. Source: Tempe For more on Tempe Town Toilet check out: http://tempetowntoilet.100webspace.net And just for fun check out the Tempe Cesspool for the Arts: http://tempe-cesspool-for-the-arts.tripod.com/
Again you can blame the insane, unconstitutional "War on Drugs" for turning our neighborhoods into battle grounds where kids & young adults kill each other for a few pennies worth of weed. If drugs were legal these folks would have purchased their drugs in the produce department of a local Frys or Safeway for a few cents instead of having a gun battle over them in a Mesa neighborhood. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2014/12/01/mesa-siblings-drug-dealer-attempted-murder-abrk/19742953/ Mesa police: Man shot in face during botched drug deal Paige Shacklett, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:10 p.m. MST December 1, 2014 Mesa police arrested four people over the weekend after what investigators described as a botched drug deal ended with one man shot in the face and another running down the street as he fled a pursuing gunman, according to court records. Police said the incident began on Saturday evening when Casselina Monee Davis, 24, and her 21-year-old brother, Parris Jahlin Mingo, asked a man to deliver some marijuana to their central Mesa apartment, according to court records. After the victim and another man, 27-year-old Dominick Nellams, arrived at the apartment, the victim went inside to charge his phone while Nellams waited by a car with two large glasses filled with marijuana, police said. Mesa police said Parris lured a drug dealer to an apartment Davis, Mingo and 19-year-old Maurice Doss locked the door of the apartment and started punching the victim, police said. When he tried to leave the apartment, Mingo fired a gun once and struck the man in the jaw, according to court records. The victim then stumbled out of the apartment and left a trail of blood as he tried to warn Nellams about the ambush, police said. Mesa police said Dominick Nellams was part of an attempted Mesa police said Dominick Nellams was part of an attempted drug deal that ended with another man shot in the face in November 2014.(Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office) Nellams ran to Pioneer Park while Mingo chased after him, according to records. Witnesses recalled to police that Mingo had escaped the scene in a white van. Doss and Davis attempted to leave the complex, but responding officers spotted them as paramedics were taking the victim to the hospital for treatment, police said. Police arrested Mingo on Sunday at a home in Buckeye after a brief standoff with Mesa police, during which he tried to hide in the attic to avoid arrest, according to court documents. Mesa police said Maurice Doss helped to lure a drug Mesa police said Maurice Doss helped to lure a drug dealer to an apartment where the drug dealer was shot and assaulted in November 2014.(Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office) A resident at the Buckeye home told police that they would not find any guns inside, but a search warrant turned up a black revolver with five loose bullets wrapped in a bandanna, according to police reports. The gun would hold six bullets when fully loaded, police said. The victim was able to identify all of the suspects in photo lineups and recall their involvement in the assault, according to court documents. Davis admitted that she ordered drugs from Nellams and to being in the apartment with the others at the time of the shooting, according to police reports. Doss told police he thought Mingo had shot the victim, according to court records.
Phoenix uses traffic laws to run homeless out of town???"Phoenix leaders, police and even homeless advocates have agreed the law was not intended to criminalize homelessness." Bullsh*t!!!!! Believe that and I will tell you that Hitler's laws against the Jews were not intended to criminalize being Jewish!!!! Phoenix law targeting medians poses panhandler paradox Caitlin McGlade, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:43 a.m. MST December 1, 2014 Phoenix leaders, police and even homeless advocates have agreed the law was not intended to criminalize homelessness. On a good day, Danny Benham makes about $40. It takes patience. For about four hours, he must stand on a strip of concrete between lanes of opposing traffic and scores a buck or two at a time. It takes humility. He must endure the occasional bully, like the one who rolled down his window to unleash a stream of pepper spray. Or unwanted solicitations, like the naked man who cruised up assuming Benham was a prostitute. And it also takes guts. Benham must dart out into the road to retrieve cash or coins that drivers toss out their windows as they speed by. That's precisely what Phoenix police want to stop in a city that sees about 40 pedestrian deaths a year and in a Valley that has ranked among the top 10 spots in the nation where pedestrians are likely to be hit and killed. The City Council in November unanimously passed an ordinance to outlaw standing in medians. Scofflaws will face a $250 civil fine after their first warning and a criminal misdemeanor on their third offense. It already was illegal to stand in some medians around the city, such as ones owned by the state near freeways that are marked by signs warning of trespassing. People have tended to stand on those anyway, and officers in the past have typically asked them to move, Lt. Matt Giordano said. But the police will begin enforcing those more rigorously, he said. Council members heralded the measure as a long-needed public-safety improvement. But some fear the law could disproportionately punish homeless or impoverished people who stand in medians to collect money from passers-by. Safety concerns Giordano was assigned to the traffic bureau about two years ago. He started looking at the statistics and considering possible ways to curb those numbers. In 2013, there were 147 injuries or fatalities from jaywalking citywide. [That is less the one case every two days!!! So what!!!] Nine out of 10 times, he said, the pedestrian is at fault, he said. [Please give us some number!!!! I think you are lying Lt. Matt Giordano] "The person driving the vehicle ... they're driving within the speed limit, they're not impaired, they're using their seat belt and a pedestrian comes out where it's not expected," he said. "That doesn't make them feel any better that they killed someone." The police launched a couple of educational and enforcement campaigns since. Police spent weeks stopping pedestrians they found crossing roads in non-designated areas to talk about the risks. Next, they educated people they found darting across light-rail tracks about the risks. [Translation - the cops spend weeks shaking down and terrorizing spent homeless folks they found crossing roads in non-designated areas] The next move, Giordano said, was the ordinance. Council members said they hope the ordinance ends an issue they and their constituents have encountered for too long. They pointed to individuals who stand in the median to advertise car washes or sell Girl Scout cookies as part of the problem. "It has become a major problem on so many roads," Councilwoman Thelda Williams said. [A major problem??? The article just said it was a trivial problem with 147 injuries in 2013 or one accident every 2 and a half days] A national trend There is a growing trend among cities nationwide to pass laws that criminalize homelessness, said Jeremy Rosen, director of advocacy at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty in Washington, D.C. Such ordinances, typically billed as public-safety measures, wind up punishing homeless people for activities they cannot avoid, he said. [Yea, like this law is billed as a "public safety measure"] In 2014, the number of cities passing bans on begging increased by 25 percent, while that figure rose by 60 percent for cities banning camping citywide, according to a report by Rosen's organization. Jerry Jones, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said he considers laws that ban median-standing as criminalizing measures. It's an attempt, he said, "to make homeless folks less visible." A federal court struck down a similar law in Portland, Maine, after the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine argued that it violated free speech. A spokesman from the ACLU of Arizona said the Phoenix law has the potential to prohibit free-speech, and the group will watch to see how officers enforce the Phoenix law. An inch, not a mile But city leaders, police and even homeless advocates have agreed the law was not intended to criminalize homelessness. [I have never heard elected officials say "let's run the homeless folks out of town." They always come up with a politically correct way of saying "let's run the homeless folks out of town." Like let's make it illegal for folks to stand in street medians for more then 1.0 seconds] The main concern is to make sure the police enforce the ordinance equally, regardless of who stands in the median. Rosen said laws such as the Phoenix ordinance can lead to certain groups getting targeted. "This would be an inch toward criminalization, not a mile," said Brad Bridwell, with Cloudbreak Communities, a special-needs housing developer for homeless veterans. Both he and Michael Shore, who chairs the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness, told the council before the vote that the law could throw homeless people into a cycle of fines they could never pay. The effect would be twofold, they said. The city would expend resources by cycling offenders through Homeless Court only to dismiss fines they didn't have money to pay. And the homeless individuals slapped with misdemeanors would be barred from housing options that ban people with criminal records. However, Shore and Bridwell became comfortable with the measure after the council agreed to require police to formally warn all people who stand in medians. Both also said Phoenix treats the homeless population much better than other cities, and couldn't point to any existing laws that criminalize the homeless. "I don't see it spiraling out of control under (Mayor Greg) Stanton's leadership," Shore said. "It still has the potential. We'll wait and see." Giordano said the officers look to connect homeless people they interact with to services. A program that launched this summer, known as the Misdemeanor Repeat Offender Program,encourages officers to connect runaways, mentally ill and those without serious criminal backgrounds to city social workers. Giordano stressed that the group that formed the new ordinance did not seek to end panhandling. "We wanted to make sure we weren't targeted any one group. Panhandling is protected free speech," Giordano said. Benham, who has lived on the streets for five years, makes his living by panhandling. He'll stop by churches for a free meal occasionally, but he said he made a promise to himself years ago that he was going to at least make enough money to choose where he eats. The former Fry's employee actually found panhandling to bring in up to $100 a day or so a few years ago, but lately the amounts are much smaller. He said he was accustomed to police officers waiving him off the medians in the past. But with the added fines and enforcement? "Chances are I'll go to jail at least once." Republic reporter Dustin Gardiner contributed to this article.
Congress "F*ck the 1st Amendment"!!!! Also I would suspect this law is probably unconstitutional because making threats against people is probably a crime that is reserved for the State governments to regulate, not Uncle Sam. But who cares, 99.9% of the laws passed by the US Congress are unconstitutional. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/30/justices-weigh-limits-of-free-speech-over-internet/19698359/ Justices weigh limits of free speech over Internet Associated Press 8:33 a.m. MST November 30, 2014 WASHINGTON — Anthony Elonis claimed he was just kidding when he posted a series of graphically violent rap lyrics on Facebook about killing his estranged wife, shooting up a kindergarten class and attacking an FBI agent. But his wife didn't see it that way. Neither did a federal jury. Elonis, who's from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was convicted of violating a federal law that makes it a crime to threaten another person. In a far-reaching case that probes the limits of free speech over the Internet, the Supreme Court on Monday was to consider whether Elonis' Facebook posts, and others like it, deserve protection under the First Amendment. Elonis argues that his lyrics were simply a crude and spontaneous form of expression that should not be considered threatening if he did not really mean it. The government says it does not matter what Elonis intended, and that the true test of a threat is whether his words make a reasonable person feel threatened. One post about his wife said, "There's one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you. I'm not going to rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts." The case has drawn widespread attention from free-speech advocates who say comments on Facebook, Twitter and other social media can be hasty, impulsive and easily misinterpreted. They point out that a message on Facebook intended for a small group could be taken out of context when viewed by a wider audience. "A statute that proscribes speech without regard to the speaker's intended meaning runs the risk of punishing protected First Amendment expression simply because it is crudely or zealously expressed," said a brief from the American Liberties Union and other groups. But so far, most lower courts have rejected that view, ruling that a "true threat" depends on how an objective person perceives the message. For more than four decades, the Supreme Court has said that "true threats" to harm another person are not protected speech under the First Amendment. But the court has been careful to distinguish threats from protected speech such as "political hyperbole" or "unpleasantly sharp attacks." Elonis claims he was depressed and that his online posts under the pseudonym "Tone Dougie" were a way to vent his frustration after his wife left him and he lost his job working at an amusement park. His lawyers say the posts were heavily influenced by rap star Eminem, who has also fantasized in songs about killing his ex-wife. But Elonis' wife testified that the comments made her fear for her life. After she obtained a protective order against him, Elonis wrote a lengthy post mocking court proceedings: "Did you know that it's illegal for me to say I want to kill my wife?" A female FBI agent later visited Elonis at home to ask him about the postings. Elonis took to Facebook again: "Little agent lady stood so close, took all the strength I had not to turn the bitch ghost. Pull my knife, flick my wrist and slit her throat." Elonis was convicted of making threats of violence and sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison. A federal appeals court rejected his claim that his comments were protected by the First Amendment. The Obama administration says requiring proof that a speaker intended to be threatening would undermine the law's protective purpose. In its brief to the court, the Justice Department argued that no matter what someone believes about his comments, it does not lessen the fear and anxiety they might cause for other people. "The First Amendment does not require that a person be permitted to inflict those harms based on an unreasonable subjective belief that his words do not mean what they say," government lawyers said. The National Center for Victims of Crime, which submitted a brief supporting the government, said judging threats based on the speaker's intent would make stalking crimes even more difficult to prosecute. "Victims of stalking are financially, emotionally and socially burdened by the crime regardless of the subjective intent of the speaker," the organization said. The case is Elonis v. United States, 13-983. ___ Follow Sam Hananel on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SamHananelAP
Ferguson pigs use murder of Michael Brown to score a $2,400 pay increase!!!!Ferguson pigs use murder of Michael Brown to score a $2,400 pay increase!!!! "Increase the stipend for officers living in the city to $300 per month, up from $100."OK, that's a $200 increase per month from $100 a month to $300 a month. Which is a $2,400 pay increase each year. Who says police crime doesn't pay??? I also bet Darren Wilson is one p*ssed off cop. He won't get a penny of the pay raise that his crime of murder helped create for his fellow cops. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/30/ferguson-officer-darren-wilson-resigns-reaction/19697739/ Ferguson mayor: No severance pay for Wilson John Bacon, USA TODAY 9:34 p.m. EST November 30, 2014 Darren Wilson officially resigned from the Ferguson Police Department on Saturday night. The announcement comes nearly 4 months since he shot and killed Michael Brown and less than a week since a grand jury decided not to indict him. VPC The white police officer who resigned almost four months after fatally shooting a black teen, setting off months of sometimes violent protests in Ferguson, Mo., was not asked to leave — but "it's best that we continue to move on as a community," Mayor James Knowles said Sunday. Knowles said Darren Wilson, who was earning about $45,000 a year, was given no severance when he resigned Saturday, effective immediately. Wilson, 28, had been on paid administrative leave since shooting Michael Brown, 18, following a brief confrontation on a Ferguson street Aug. 9. A St. Louis County grand jury declined Nov. 24 to indict Wilson on any charges in Brown's death, sparking more protests. Knowles said at a news conference Sunday that the city of 21,000 will take a series of steps aimed at increasing minority representation on its police force: •Fund police academy scholarships. Recipients will be required to work on the Ferguson force for at least two years after graduation. •Increase the stipend for officers living in the city to $300 per month, up from $100. •Start a police explorer program in the schools to give students a chance to meet and interact with police officers in a friendly setting. •Create a citizen review board, which will advise and review operations of the Ferguson Police Department. The board will be made up of citizens not involved in government currently. All but a handful of the city's more than 50 police officers are white, though the city is predominantly black. "We are committed to rebuilding the city and to once again become a thriving community for economic development and residential stability," Knowles said. Wilson said threats directed at the department fueled concern that staying on the force might have "put the residents and police officers of the City of Ferguson at risk, which is a circumstance that I cannot allow." "It is my hope that my resignation will allow the community to heal. I would like to thank all of my supporters and fellow officers throughout this process," Wilson said in his resignation letter. USA TODAY Ferguson a defining moment for race relations in USA USA TODAY Ferguson protesters lead 'Time' magazine's 'Person of the Year' ballot "It was always believed that the police officer would do what was in his best interest, both personally and professionally," said Benjamin Crump, a lawyer representing Brown's family. "We didn't believe that he would be able to be effective for the Ferguson community nor the Ferguson Police Department." Activist Al Sharpton, who spoke at a church service Brown's parents attended Sunday, issued a statement saying: "We were not after Wilson's job. We were after Michael Brown's justice." Patricia Bynes, a Democratic committeewoman in Ferguson, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the resignation was too little, too late. "It doesn't even have the same impact that it would have months ago," she said. "It would have relieved a lot of anger and the pressure in the streets" Bynes tweeted this: "The reality is that after all that has happened Wilson is a tiny drop in a big bucket. We have much bigger fish to fry." Scores of protesters demonstrated outside Ferguson police headquarters Saturday night. An American flag was burned and two people were arrested. But the gathering lacked the furious outrage that marked the first nights after the grand jury announced that Wilson would not face charges. Protester Deray McKesson tweeted: "Darren Wilson is not in jail, as he should be. His resignation is not enough, his resignation is important but not justice." Not far from the protest, resident Victoria Rutherford said she believed Wilson's resignation was not enough, that he should have been convicted of a crime. "I'm upset. I have a 16-year-old son. (Michael Brown) could've been him. I feel that he was absolutely in the wrong," she said. Ferguson resident Reed Voorhees was supportive of Wilson, saying he hoped Wilson could find similar work "someplace where he would enjoy life, and move on with his life." Wilson recently married Ferguson officer Barbara Spradling, and the couple is expecting a child. Wilson's lawyer, Neil Bruntrager, said Wilson left after police Chief Tom Jackson told him that people had threatened violence against officers. "In terms of what (the resignation) means, it means at this point he doesn't have a paycheck," Bruntrager said. "He has no income so he'll have to make some decisions pretty quickly." Wilson's decision to leave the force drew ire on social media from across the nation and around the globe, even among people who were glad to see him gone. Sonia Faleiro, a New Delhi journalist, tweeted: "Only in America: killer escapes jail time, quits job, demands severance package." But others wished Wilson well. Tweeted @jbrownlee from Peoria, Ariz.: "I wish #DarrenWilson the best in his next endeavor! God bless you and your wife! #DarrenWilsonResigns" Victor Warden of South Carolina tweeted: "Shameful that #Darren Wilson, a good officer, resigns bcuz of the racist and hateful actions of ppl who want justice 4 a criminal!" Contributing: The Associated Press
New nuclear weapons needed, many experts say, pointing to aged arsenal Wait a minute, when I was growing up we were told we had enough nuclear weapons to kill every person in the world 10 or 20 times. Why the f*ck do we need more nukes???? OK, to keep the profits up for the corporations in the military industrial complex. And to create a jobs program for Generals. Silly me, it ain't about peace, it's about cold hard cash for the special interest groups that helped get the Democrats and Republicans elected. Sadly I have been part of the problem at one time or another. Once I interviewed for a job where I would have been writing software for a microprocessor that monitors a nuclear explosion. They told me the microprocessor would be vaporized by the explosion. But before that time it would have collected all the needed data. I didn't get the job. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-new-nukes-20141130-story.html#page=1 New nuclear weapons needed, many experts say, pointing to aged arsenal By Ralph Vartabedian, W.J. Hennigan contact the reporters The U.S. nuclear program 'is rusting its way to disarmament,' some experts say As weapons age, U.S. should develop a new generation of hydrogen bombs, many experts say Two decades after the U.S. began to scale back its nuclear forces in the aftermath of the Cold War, a number of military strategists, scientists and congressional leaders are calling for a new generation of hydrogen bombs. Warheads in the nation's stockpile are an average of 27 years old, which raises serious concerns about their reliability, they say. Provocative nuclear threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin have added to the pressure to not only design new weapons but conduct underground tests for the first time since 1992. "We should get rid of our existing warheads and develop a new warhead that we would test to detonation," said John Hamre, deputy secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration and now president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "We have the worst of all worlds: older weapons and large inventories that we are retaining because we are worried about their reliability." The incoming Republican-controlled Congress could be more open to exploring new weapons. "It seems like common sense to me if you're trying to keep an aging machine alive that's well past its design life, then you're treading on thin ice," said Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman-elect of the House Armed Services Committee. "Not to mention, we're spending more and more to keep these things going." Thornberry also offered support for renewed testing, saying, "You don't know how a car performs unless you turn the key over. Why would we accept anything less from a weapon that provides the foundation for which all our national security is based on?" Some of the key technocrats and scientists of the Cold War say the nation has become overly confident about its nuclear deterrence. The nuclear enterprise, they say, "is rusting its way to disarmament." "We should start from scratch," said Don Hicks, who directed the Pentagon's strategic weapons research during the Reagan administration. "We have so much enriched uranium and plutonium left from old weapons that we could use it properly for a new generation of weapons." In the 25 years since the Cold War ended, the U.S. has significantly retreated from the brinkmanship of the arms race, reducing its stockpile from a peak of 31,000 nuclear weapons in 1967 to its current level of 4,804 weapons. Russia has cut its stockpile to about the same size. After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the U.S. agreed to an international moratorium on testing, though it never ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Halting underground tests was seen as a crucial step toward full nuclear disarmament because it would put a high barrier against developing new weapons. After more than two decades, the nuclear deterrent could be in worse shape than we want to believe. We need to demonstrate the proficiency of our ... strategic forces. - John S. Foster Jr., former director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory The U.S. allowed much of its weapons complex to deteriorate, particularly production facilities, as cooperation with Russia flourished in the 1990s. Today, the signs of decay are pervasive at the Pantex facility in Texas, where nuclear weapons are disassembled and repaired. Rat infestation has become so bad that employees are afraid to bring their lunches to work. "They literally have to keep their lunch bags on a shelf that's head high so it won't get eaten," Thornberry said. "They find them on their computers, in the hallways. It's a continual problem." The buildings at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., are so old that a concrete ceiling recently collapsed into a production area. The Obama administration has a $60-billion plan to modernize the Energy Department complex and update weapons, including a new type of warhead that cannibalizes components from older weapons. The device would combine an atomic trigger from one weapon with a thermonuclear assembly from another. Called the interoperable warhead, it would reduce the number of weapons designs from seven to five, on the hopes that it would save money. The device, which has been derided as an atomic "Frankenbomb," has prompted criticism from arms control factions. Advocates of a strong U.S. nuclear posture are not big supporters, either. "Mixing and mashing parts into configurations that have never been tested before is not a good idea, by any means," said Kingston Reif, director for disarmament and threat reduction policy at the Arms Control Assn. "It's going to cost money that we don't have for a mission that plays an increasingly limited role in U.S. national security." Some of the nation's top nuclear weapons scientists say a better option is to design new weapons better suited to current threats. Nuclear weapons In many ways, the growing nuclear capability of China, coupled with the addition of North Korea, Pakistan and India to the status of nuclear powers, has made deterrence strategy more complicated than during the Cold War. John S. Foster Jr., former director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and chief of Pentagon research during the Cold War, said the labs should design, develop and build prototype weapons that may be needed by the military in the future, including a very low-yield nuclear weapon that could be used with precision delivery systems, an electromagnetic pulse weapon that could destroy an enemy's communications systems and a penetrating weapon to destroy deeply buried targets. "After more than two decades, the nuclear deterrent could be in worse shape than we want to believe," Foster said. "We need to demonstrate the proficiency of our weapons labs and our strategic forces." Restarting design and production in the U.S., however, would requires billions of dollars to build new facilities, including a metallurgy plant in New Mexico for plutonium triggers and a uranium forge in Tennessee for thermonuclear assemblies. In addition, since the mid-1990s, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Energy Department branch that oversees the atomic arsenal, has lost some of the expertise to build weapons. Most nuclear lab scientists are older than 50, and younger scientists have no experience building a weapon. Moving ahead with any agenda for producing new bombs will require surmounting large political, financial and technological hurdles, all of which have killed Energy Department attempts in the last two decades to design new weapons. Norton A. Schwartz, a retired four-star general who served as Air Force chief of staff, said he sensed little support for a new round of nuclear competition. "I don't see any appetite for breaking these taboos," he said. The political and environmental dynamics of testing — detonations 100 miles from Las Vegas so powerful that casinos would shake — are almost impossible to comprehend in today's climate. Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and now a professor at Stanford University, said testing could cause another problem. A resumption of U.S. testing would probably prompt other nuclear powers to resume as well, allowing them to catch up with the U.S.' huge experimental lead. The U.S. has by far the greatest archive of test data, having conducted 1,032 nuclear tests. Russia conducted 715 and China only 45. Hecker said the U.S. has so much experience, data and scientific capability that it could build a new generation of weapons without testing. Advocates of a strong nuclear posture say that's an option worth pursuing because the nation's aging weapons cannot go on indefinitely. Absent an international deal to eliminate every nation's nuclear stockpile, the U.S. will eventually need new weapons to maintain its deterrent effect, even if it renews some of the fear that gripped the world in the Cold War. "The interesting thing about a nuclear deterrent is that enough of it has to be visible to scare the living daylights out of the enemy," said Joe Braddock, a long-time Pentagon science advisor and nuclear weapons effects expert. "But if you are not careful, you scare the living daylights out of yourself." ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com william.hennigan@latimes.com Twitter: @rvartabedian, @wjhenn |