Those police video tapes we paid for are SECRET!!! "That’s because the [San Diego Police] department claims the footage, which is captured by devices financed by city taxpayers and worn by officers on the public payroll, aren’t public records" http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/08/19/police-cameras-are-important-but-theyre-useless-without-proper-policies-to-ensure-theyre-used-properly/?hpid=z3 Police cameras are important, but they’re useless without policies to ensure they’re used properly By Radley Balko August 19 at 3:54 PM There’s no question that, had the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department mandated that its officers wear body cameras, use dashboard cameras or both, there would be far fewer mysteries about the events leading up to the shooting of Michael Brown. The department apparently had these cameras; it just hadn’t gotten around to using them. But simply mandating that the cameras be used isn’t enough, as City Lab reports from San Diego: Here in San Diego, our scandal-plagued police department has begun outfitting some officers with body cameras, and the City Council has approved a plan to roll out hundreds more. Officers wearing the cameras were present during at least two shootings earlier this year. Yet we’re still not any closer to knowing what happened in those chaotic moments — whether the perpetrators can be easily identified, what kind of interactions the officers had with those present, nothing. That’s because the department claims the footage, which is captured by devices financed by city taxpayers and worn by officers on the public payroll, aren’t public records. Our newsroom’s request for footage from the shootings under the California Public Records Act was denied. Once footage becomes part of an investigation, the department says it doesn’t have to release them. SDPD also said during the pilot phase of the camera program that it doesn’t even have to release footage from the cameras after an investigation wraps. I called the department Friday to see whether it’s updated any policies surrounding the cameras now that more are being doled out and the program is kicking into full swing. “We have had very positive feedback from the officers who are using them in the field” but “there are no policy changes to the releasing of evidence from body cameras,” SDPD spokesman Kevin Mayer tells me in an email. This is absurd. The police work for the public. The cameras were purchased with public funds. Government employees are answerable to the public, especially those who have the power to detail, arrest and kill. A police department that refuses to release dash-camera or lapel-camera footage to the public after a controversial incident is basically saying just trust us. But if the optimal goal is for the public to unquestioningly trust the police, there’s no reason to outfit cops with cameras in the first place. (It will be interesting to see if SDPD adopts the same policy when a video clearly exonerates a police officer of false allegations.) But even when the video is considered public record — or at least is at least released to a criminal defense and attorneys filing civil rights claims during discovery — there is another problem. There have been too many examples in which an officer has “forgotten” to turn on a camera, a camera has coincidentally malfunctioned at a critical tim, or video has gone missing. I wrote about this problem in March. In the College Park case, a campus police surveillance camera was pointed at the area where Jack McKenna was beaten. But there’s no security video of the incident. Campus police say the camera coincidentally malfunctioned at the time of the beating. A local news station reported that the officer in charge of the campus surveillance video system is married to one of the officers later disciplined for McKenna’s beating. This is not the first time a police camera in Prince George’s County has malfunctioned at a critical time. In 2007 Andrea McCarren, an investigative reporter for the D.C. TV station WJLA, was pulled over by seven Prince George’s County police cars as she and a cameraman followed a county official in pursuit of a story about misuse of public funds. In a subsequent lawsuit, McCarren claimed police roughed her up during the stop, causing a dislocated shoulder and torn rotator cuff. McCarren won a settlement, but she was never able to obtain video of the incident. Prince George’s County officials say all seven dashboard cameras in the police cruisers coincidentally malfunctioned. Last March, Justice Lee Ann Dauphinot of the Second Court of Appeals in Texas complained in a dissent that when defendants accused of driving while intoxicated in Fort Worth challenge the charges in court, dash-camera video of their arrests is often missing or damaged. “At some point,” Dauphinot wrote, “courts must address the repeated failure of officers to use the recording equipment and their repeated inability to remember whether the car they were driving on patrol or to a DWI stop contained the video equipment the City of Fort Worth has been paying for.” These aren’t the only examples. In fact, it has previously happened in Ferguson, Mo. Michael Daly reported in the Daily Beast last week that, when Ferguson cops beat Henry Davis after mistakenly arresting him in 2009, a jailhouse camera was supposed to be recording the area where he was beaten. Somehow, the footage of the incident was destroyed. More recently, on Aug. 11, New Orleans police officer Lisa Lewis claims she was engaged in a struggle with motorist Armond Bennett just before she shot him in the head. New Orleans officers are outfitted with cameras, but there’s no video to verify Lewis’s version of events because she says turned her camera off just before the incident. NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas called this a “snafu.” One could understand if a critic were to opt for another word, like coverup. So in addition to making these videos public record, accessible through public records requests, we also need to ensure that police agencies implement rules requiring officers to actually use the cameras, enforce those rules by disciplining officers when they don’t and ensure that the officers, the agencies that employ them, and prosecutors all take care to preserve footage, even if the footage reflects poorly on officers. One policy that would go a long way toward achieving those three objectives is what defense attorney Scott Greenfield calls the missing video presumption. Currently, the courts generally treat important video that goes missing as a harmless mistake. They assume no ill will on the part of police. If you discover that the police were or should have been recording an encounter that would vindicate you of criminal charges or prove that the police violated your rights, and that video goes missing, you’re simply out of luck. Under the missing video presumption, if under the policy agency’s police there should have been video and there isn’t, then the courts will assume that the video corroborates the party opposing the police, be it a criminal defendant or the plaintiff in a civil rights lawsuit. The state could still get over the presumption by presenting other evidence, such as witnesses, medical reports, and so on. But if it’s the police officer’s word against his antagonist’s, there should be video to validate one side or the other, and that video mysteriously goes missing while in police custody, the police should have to pay a penalty in court. Otherwise, there’s just too strong an incentive for vindicating video to be leaked and for incriminating video to disappear. Radley Balko blogs about criminal justice, the drug war and civil liberties for The Washington Post. He is the author of the book "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces
Felony charges for beating a child??? As a child I was beaten a lot with a belt and I consider beating kids with a belt or even with out a belt to child abuse. Like these girls I was often beating for trivial thinks like "acting funny", whatever that is or for "saying hi wrong", whatever that is. In addition to being child abuse, I don't think beatings are an effective punishment who it comes to changing a child's behavior. Stacy Hamby certainly seems to be a sadistic *sshole like my father was. Beating a child with a belt hard enough to give the child welts for "not going to sleep" doesn't sounds like a fitting punishment for the crime. But is the solution to this problem to throw Stacy Hamby in prison and let the uncaring government bureaucrats that CPS raise her children??? And arresting Stacy Hamby daughter Laura Hamby who probably was abused by Stacy doesn't seem to be right either. http://www.azfamily.com/news/Phoenix-grandma-daughter-accused-of-abusing-girls-271736861.html Phoenix grandma, daughter accused of abusing girls Posted on August 18, 2014 at 2:15 PM PHOENIX (AP) -- A woman is accused of child abuse for allegedly spanking her two grandchildren with a belt in front of the children's mother, who also has been arrested. Phoenix police say 43-year-old Stacy Hamby and 24-year-old Laura Hamby both are being held on two counts of felony child abuse. Their bond was set Monday at $25,000 apiece at their initial court appearance. Neither woman has a lawyer yet. Police say they were called by authorities at the girls' elementary school after a nurse found bruises on the children's buttocks and thighs Wednesday. "They [police] went to the school," said Officer James Holmes with the Phoenix Police Dept. "They talked to the eight-year-old daughter and the six-year-old daughter found that actually they both had bruising and the bruising they were able to observe was consistent with being hit with a belt including what may be an image of a belt buckle." The girls -- ages 6 and 8 -- say they were punished by their grandmother for not going to sleep at their apartment, which is in North Phoenix near 19th Avenue and Bell Rd. Stacy Hamby reportedly told police she was upset at the girls' behavior and was under some stress. Laura Hamby is accused of assisting with the beating and not protecting her children. She told police she was beaten by her mother, Stacy Hamby, when she was child. She said she didn't want her daughters living in that type of environment but said she had nowhere else to live. http://ktar.com/22/1759543/Valley-woman-accused-of-whipping-grandkids Phoenix grandmother, mother accused of abusing girls By Associated Press Originally published: Aug 18, 2014 - 1:45 pm PHOENIX -- A woman has been charged with child abuse, accused of spanking her two grandchildren with a belt in front of the children's mother, who also has been arrested. Stacy Hamby, 43, and Laura Hamby, 24, were being held on two counts of felony child abuse. Their bond was set Monday at $25,000 apiece at their initial court appearance. Neither woman has a lawyer yet. Police said they were called by authorities at the girls' elementary school after a nurse found bruises on the children's buttocks and thighs Wednesday. The girls, 6 and 8, said they were punished for not going to sleep at their apartment. Stacy Hamby reportedly told police she was upset at the girls' behavior and was under some stress. http://www.kfyi.com/articles/arizona-news-118695/grandmother-accused-of-abusing-kids-with-12681745 Grandmother Accused of Abusing Kids with Belt PHOENIX (AP) _ A woman is accused of child abuse for allegedly spanking her two grandchildren with a belt in front of the children's mother, who also has been arrested. Phoenix police say 43-year-old Stacy Hamby and 24-year-old Laura Hamby both are being held on two counts of felony child abuse. Their bond was set Monday at $25,000 apiece at their initial court appearance. Neither woman has a lawyer yet. Police say they were called by authorities at the girls' elementary school after a nurse found bruises on the children's buttocks and thighs Wednesday. The girls - ages 6 and 8 - say they were punished by their grandmother for not going to sleep at their apartment. Stacy Hamby reportedly told police she was upset at the girls' behavior and was under some stress.
You pay for the TSA thugs to abuse you???? Do you realize that every time you fly and those obnoxious *ssholes at the TSA feel you up and illegally search you, that you are paying for it??? According to this article every time you hop on an airplane the airline charges you a minimum of $5.60 so the TSA *ssholes can abuse you. http://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/consumer/2014/07/20/tsa-fees-airline-prices-higher/12906649/ Hike in TSA fees boosts airline-ticket prices Dawn Gilbertson, The Republic | azcentral.com 11:34 p.m. MST July 19, 2014 Airline-ticket prices are going up Monday because of higher fees, but passengers can't blame the airlines for this increase. The culprit: higher security fees Congress approved late last year to help balance the federal budget. The Sept. 11 security fee, tacked on to tickets for flights departing U.S. airports since early 2002 to help fund the Transportation Security Administration, is more than doubling for many passengers. The size of the fee increase depends on a traveler's itinerary. Those booking non-stop flights will see some of the biggest price hikes, with the security fee going from $2.50 to $5.60 each way, or from $5 to $11.20 round trip, a 124 percent jump. "It's a whopping increase," said Charlie Leocha, director of the non-profit Consumer Travel Alliance, which lobbied against the fee hike along with the airline industry. Passengers who book a trip with connecting flights will generally see the smallest increase. Today, those travelers pay $2.50 per stop each way, up to a maximum of $5, or $10 per round trip. Under the new fee structure, they will pay a flat $5.60 each way, or $11.20 round trip. That's an increase of 12 percent. One group of connecting passengers will face significantly higher security fees: those with long layovers or multiple cities on their ticket. The fees on such itineraries are currently capped at $10 round trip. Under the new TSA rules, a $5.60 security fee is charged every time a passenger has a layover or stopover of more than four hours for domestic flights and 12 hours for international flights. A passenger flying round trip from Phoenix to New York with a long layover in Atlanta in each direction, for example, will now pay $5.60 for the Phoenix to Atlanta leg and another $5.60 for the Atlanta to New York leg, for a total of $11.20 each way or $22.40 round trip. A traveler who has a normal layover would pay the $5.60 fee each way. Layovers of four hours plus are not the norm. Southwest Airlines, the nation's largest carrier by domestic passengers and a major player in Phoenix with 170 daily flights from Sky Harbor International Airport, says it does not have any scheduled flights with layovers longer than four hours. US Airways, the other dominant carrier at Sky Harbor, with more than 200 daily departures, says it doesn't either, but as on any airline, travelers are free to piece together their own itinerary. George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, said bargain-hunting travelers often seek out flights with long layovers because the fares are cheaper due to the inconvenience. He cited a deal posted on the site earlier this week: $197 round trip from Newark to the Caribbean for peak winter-travel season, a savings of hundreds of dollars. The catch: Travelers had to stay overnight in Miami in both directions. Under the new fee structure, the security fees would be higher on that itinerary than on a flight with shorter connections. AAA Arizona Travel recommends that travelers check the length of a layover when booking flights beginning next week because a shorter layover can reduce fees. Frequent fliers who schedule a business trip with several stops for meetings in different cities will pay sharply higher security fees, too, since each stopover over four hours starts a new one-way trip and triggers another $5.60 fee. The TSA uses this example in federal documents: A traveler flying from Newark to Chicago, followed by Chicago to Denver, Denver to Las Vegas, Las Vegas to Chicago and Chicago to Newark, all with more than four hours between each flight, will make five one-way trips. The fees will total $28, compared with $10 today, a 180 percent increase. Scottsdale frequent flier Randy Rogers, a consultant, makes some of those multi-city trips but says he will be able to pass on the higher ticket prices to clients. Those who will be hurt the most from the fee hike, he said, are families and other infrequent fliers on a budget. "Mr. and Mrs. Public, they're going to get whacked with that higher TSA charge," he said. The higher security fees apply only to tickets purchased beginning Monday. Travelers who already bought tickets for travel this summer and beyond won't be charged retroactively. Ralph Weinstein, a retired dentist who lives in Fountain Hills and travels three to five times a year, isn't fazed by the higher security fees. "You're paying so much anyhow," he said. "It's like your telephone bill. There's 23 extra charges on our phone bill besides the standard rate." Major airlines, which have been criticized for their own fee frenzy the past several years, are publicly mum on the fee increase, leaving the contentious issue to their trade group, Airlines for America. The group lobbied against the fee hike and has repeatedly argued that the travel industry is overtaxed. "Our government must stop using airlines and their passengers as its own personal ATM whenever it needs more money," spokeswoman Jean Medina said in a statement. The TSA emphasizes that a large portion of the fee revenue under the new structure — an estimated $12.63 billion of $36.49 billion over 10 years — will go to the general fund to help reduce the federal deficit. The balance goes to the TSA. But officials note that the $23.86 billion it will receive over 10 years is only $4.3 billion more than it would have received during the same period under the current fee structure. Fee-hike examples Passengers flying non-stop, or with long layovers, will see among the biggest increases in security fees beginning Monday. Here are three scenarios: • Non-stop Phoenix to Chicago: from $2.50 to $5.60 each way, a 124 percent increase. • Phoenix to New York with a change of planes in Dallas: from $5 to $5.60 each way, a 12 percent increase. • Phoenix to Orlando with a long layover* in Atlanta: from $5 to $11.20 each way, a 124 percent increase. * More than four hours between domestic flights or 12 hours for international flights.
Sure way to avoid being hacked - use snail mail??? NSA and the Homeland Security goons admit they illegally read our e-mails and illegally listen in to our phone calls. I wouldn't be surprised if the US Post Office also illegally opens and illegally reads our snail mail for the government goons in the NSA and Homeland Security. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/08/18/way-to-avoid-database-hacking-snail-mail/14267027/ Sure way to avoid being hacked Gerry Walsh 6:43 p.m. MST August 18, 2014 It seems like once a week we read about some major store or bank revealing they had their database hacked. In some cases, the user names, passwords and other information were stolen. It was recently reported that some Russian hackers had stolen about 1.2 billion e-mail accounts. The response from the IT security experts is: We can't stop this, it's going to continue. What you must do is change your user name and password every three months. So what the IT experts are saying is: If you don't want your Internet communications hacked, use snail mail. — Gerry Walsh, Surprise
When a loved one is behaving weirdly and needs help the last person in the world you want to call is the police or 911. They may murder your loved one before she or he gets a chance to kill themselves. Just like the Phoenix Police murdered the woman in this article!!!! Or like the Mesa Police murdered Mario Madrigal Jr. Sadly the police are trained that the PEOPLE are their enemies, and that any trivial act is a life threatening act of aggression that needs to be countered with deadly force. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/08/18/why-did-not-police-aid-mentally-ill-woman/14267083/ Why didn't police aid, not kill, mentally ill woman? Molly Holzer 6:45 p.m. MST August 18, 2014 Regarding "Family seeks answers from police in death of loved one," (Republic, Sunday): Frances Garrett was asking for help for her mentally ill daughter from the police. I imagine she wanted to get her daughter help safely. She wanted to keep her daughter and everyone around her safe while she was transported for care. Apparently, four Phoenix police officers came to her door knowing they were to help transport a mentally ill 50-year-old woman for care. A 19-year veteran shoots her in the chest because she had a hammer in her hand? Couldn't four officers disable her or shoot her hand? Why is this poor woman dead? What is police protocol for mentally ill individuals? I thought they had a crisis-intervention team with trained counselors to assist with these situations. — Molly Holzer, Scottsdale
Why buy Tasers when police use only guns? Because the folks at the Taser Corporation have lots of expensive lobbyists who give the legislators that pass our laws expensive bribes, oops I mean campaign contributions. That's why!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/08/18/why-buy-tasers-when-police-use-only-guns/14267237/ Why buy Tasers when police use only guns? J. Riou 6:49 p.m. MST August 18, 2014 Why are we wasting money buying Tasers for the police if they only use guns on unarmed citizens? Shame. — J. Riou, Tempe
So my addiction to caffeine is a mental illness??? So the millions of Americans that are addicted to nicotine or tobacco products are also mentally ill??? I say rubbish. I suspect that Dr. Nora Volkow of the National Institute on Drug Abuse or NIDA who was quoted in this letters is claiming that "drug addiction" is a mental illness, so that she can get free government money to help solve the problem that she created by defining drug addiction as a "mental illness". I also think that the National Institute on Drug Abuse or NIDA is also a big supporter of the "War on Drugs" because of the government money they get fighting the problems cause by the "War on Drugs" If you ask me DRUG ABUSE is a health problem. DRUG ABUSE is NOT a criminal problem that should be fixed by arresting people and throwing them in prison. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/08/19/true-link-between-mental-illness-drug-addiction/14317877/ True link between mental illness, drug addiction Debra F. Decker 6:34 p.m. MST August 19, 2014 Regarding "Letter about 'heroes' ignored mental illness" (Opinions, Friday): While appearing to champion mental health, the letter writer fails to recognize addiction as a deadly disease. In 2010, Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug, [I think they are referring to NIDA or National Institute on Drug Abuse] said, "We need to first recognize that drug addiction is a mental illness. It is a complex brain disease." The letter writer objects to lumping depression and addiction together as a disservice to those with depression. Nothing is further from the truth. Statistics on co-morbidity are staggering. The National Association of Mental Illness estimates that 9.2 million American adults have mental health and addiction disorders. The American Pyschiatric Association reports patients with mood/anxiety disorders are twice as likely to suffer from a drug disorder and vice versa. Drug abuse can cause mental illness; mental illness can lead to drug abuse. Both are often caused by common factors — genetics, environment and early exposure to drugs/early onset of mental illness. Be educated. Someone you love is likely struggling with addiction. As you watch them fight for their lives, you will witness true courage and heroism. — Debra F. Decker, Phoenix
I disagree with Robert Robb on this. I think what Robert Robb is saying is that even though Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman voted to raise taxes, that wasn't a vote for a tax increase because the revenue collected by the city of Tempe didn't increase. I say that's 100% BS. A vote to increase the tax rate is a vote to increase taxes. And of course if Hugh Hallman had not voted to increase the TAX RATE, taxes in Tempe would have went DOWN. By my book Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman is a tax and spend government tyrant. Despite the fact that Rain Baker seems to say I want his autograph, which is BS. http://www.azcentral.com/story/robertrobb/2014/08/19/hallman-treasurer/14312557/ Hallman tax accusation a bum rap Robert Robb, columnist | azcentral.com 4:34 p.m. MST August 19, 2014 Republican state treasurer aspirant Hugh Hallman has been accused of supporting a property tax increase while mayor of Tempe. It's a bum rap. For years, when property values were rising, county and city officials bragged that they were holding the line on the property tax rate. Of course, the same rate on higher values was producing an annual bonanza in actual collections. The bursting of the housing bubble exposed the fraud. Suddenly, since values were declining, the same rate would produce less revenue. Tempe, like many other taxing jurisdictions, increased rates to keep from losing revenue in actual collections. Tempe, however, did something else that no other jurisdiction did. It capped total property tax collections by ordinance. The annual increase is limited to inflation and new construction. Property taxes in Arizona are complicated. What the city can collect for operational purposes is limited by state law, but what is collected to pay off bonded indebtedness isn't. Within those limits, cities determine how much in property taxes to collect. The county assessor determines property values. The tax rate is just a calculation of what it takes to raise what the city has decided to collect against the property values the assessor has set. For taxpayers, the key issue is the levy, or what is collected, not the rate. Declining values in Arizona are an anomaly. Year in, year out, the best possible protection for taxpayers is a cap on the total levy, such as Tempe adopted under Hallman. It's not something he should be being beat up about. Reach Robb at robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RJRobb.
I became a Libertarian in 1994. At that time about 10% of the registered voters were Independents. Now in 2014 35.5% of the registered voters are Independents. An Independent is a registered voter who is not a member of a party with ballot status. In Arizona you are an Independent if you are not a member of the Libertarian, Americans Elect, Democrat or Republican parties. The Green Party used to have ballot status but lost it. Over the last 20 years people have gotten more and more disillusioned with the Republican and Democratic parties and as of now 35 percent of the registered voters in Arizona are Independents who are not associated with ANY party. I think the last time I checked these percentages were true not just for Arizona, but Nationally. As for Libertarians we are currently sitting at slightly less then 1% of the registered voters. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/08/19/arizona-independent-voters-continue-rise/14295877/ Independent voters in Arizona continue to rise Mary Jo Pitzl, The Republic | azcentral.com 11:47 a.m. MST August 19, 2014 Independents continue their climb in the voter-registration rolls, accounting for more than a third of Arizona voters and widening their lead over the Republican and Democratic parties. New numbers released today by the Arizona Secretary of State show independents are 35.5 percent of voters, compared to 34.6 percent for Republicans and 29.1 percent for Democrats. Independents reached the top of the voter rolls in March, capping a steady climb as voters increasingly turned away from the established parties. In all, 1.5 million Arizona voters now call themselves independents. Whether they'll turn out in force for the upcoming primary election is being closely watched. As of late last week, nearly 83,000 independent voters in Maricopa County had requested ballots for the primary. The number is higher than ever, but still accounts for only 11 percent of registered independents in the state's largest county. Find all of the candidate information you need! Need help getting started? Register to vote here. Overall voter registration in Arizona is now 3,247,146, down slightly from March due to the clean up elections officials do to remove inactive and deceased voters from the rolls. Here's a rundown of the registration numbers by voter affiliation: Independents: 1,152,444, up 0.6 percent since March. Republicans: 1,122,723, down. 0.17 percent since March. Democrats: 944,665, down 0.45 percent since March. Libertarians: 26,915, up 0.01 percent since March. Americans Elect: 399, no percentage change.
Ferguson arrests include at least 10 journalists I suspect their is some military rule that says take out your most dangerous enemies first. I guess that is why the police in Ferguson, Missouri are falsely arresting journalists. You have heard the old "pen is mightier then the sword" line. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/19/teen-shot-police-furguson-journalists-arrests/14311535/ Ferguson arrests include at least 10 journalists Seventy-eight arrests were made in Ferguson overnight, and 75 of those were for failure to disperse, according to St. Louis County Justice Services. Associated Press 4:12 p.m. MST August 19, 2014 NEW YORK — A photographer for the Getty agency and two German reporters were among the latest journalists arrested while covering protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown. At least 10 journalists have been arrested or detained since Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, was killed Aug. 9 by officer Darren Wilson. Reporters for CNN, Al Jazeera America and other outlets say they have been harassed or physically threatened. Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol, in charge of security in Ferguson, said Tuesday that members of the media have had to be asked repeatedly to return to the sidewalks, because of safety concerns. In some cases, he said, it was not immediately clear who was a reporter, but once that was established, police acted properly. "In the midst of chaos, when officers are running around, we're not sure who's a journalist and who's not," Johnson said at a news conference. [Does it make any difference *sshole??? Do only journalists have First Amendment rights??? And anybody without a ID from a media outlet who is video taping is assumed to be a criminals] "And yes, if I see somebody with a $50,000 camera on their shoulder, I'm pretty sure. But some journalists are walking around, and all you have is a cellphone because you're from a small media outlet. Some of you may just have a camera around your neck." The arrests and detainments, which have ranged from several minutes to several hours, have been widely criticized: President Obama said last week that police "should not be bullying or arresting" reporters for merely doing their jobs. Last Friday, 48 American media organizations, including The Associated Press, sent a letter to law enforcement officials in Ferguson, criticizing the treatment of reporters. "Officers on the ground must understand that gathering news and recording police activities are not crimes," the letter read. "The actions in Ferguson demonstrate a lack of training among local law enforcement in the protections required by the First Amendment, as well as the absence of respect for the role of newsgatherers. We implore police leadership to rectify this failing to ensure that these incidents do not occur again." Overall, at least two people were shot and at least 57 arrested during protests overnight Monday, authorities said. On Tuesday, Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept, an online investigative publication, tweeted that he was arrested and jailed, then released several hours later. Getty photographer Scott Olson said Monday that he was arrested "for just doing my job" and eventually released. As with previous arrests of journalists, no charges were filed against Olson, who by Monday night was back shooting photos. Two German reporters were arrested and detained for three hours Monday. [I guess in addition to being front page news on the Washington Post, this even will be front page news on all the German newspapers] Conservative German daily Die Welt said correspondent Ansgar Graw and reporter Frank Herrmann, who writes for German regional papers, were arrested after allegedly failing to follow police instructions to vacate an empty street. They said they followed police orders. On Sunday night, Sports Illustrated reporter Robert Klemko tweeted that he was tear-gassed, handcuffed and then released a few minutes later. The Telegraph's Rob Crilly and the Financial Times' Neil Munshi also reported that they were briefly detained Sunday. Last week, Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post and Ryan Reilly of The Huffington Post said they were handcuffed and put into a police van after officers came into a McDonald's where they were doing some work. The Washington Post reported that Lowery said he was slammed against a soda machine. Reilly told MSNBC that an officer slammed his head against the glass "purposefully" on the way out of the restaurant. The reporters were subsequently released without any charges. Ryan Grim, Washington bureau chief for The Huffington Post, said in a statement that "compared to some others who have come into contact with the police department, they came out relatively unscathed, but that in no way excuses the false arrest or the militant aggression toward these journalists."
Chandler lawmaker accused of swiping political signs More on the hypocrites who claim they know how to run our lives better then we do. While this article doesn't address it a few years back former Tempe Mayor Harry Mitchell, Arizona State lawmaker Harry Mitchell and US Congressman Harry Mitchell got busted for stealing his rivals campaign signs. I don't think he got busted, he was just accused. I believe he got off with the usual slap on the wrist that government criminals get for their crimes. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/08/20/chandler-lawmaker-political-signs-cited/14324991/ Chandler lawmaker accused of swiping political signs Mary Jo Pitzl, The Republic | azcentral.com 6:53 a.m. MST August 20, 2014 State Rep. Bob Robson, R-Chandler, has been cited with two misdemeanor charges for tampering with political signs. Through his attorney, Robson rejects the allegations and accuses the man behind the complaint is guilty of tampering with signs and, possibly, with illegally coordinating campaign activities. The sign scrum is yet another indication of the high tensions swirling around the Legislature's vote in 2013 to expand the state's Medicaid program to cover 300,000 low-income Arizonans. Robson, along with 13 other Republicans, joined Democrats to approve the expansion proposed by Gov. Jan Brewer. Opponents vowed to seek retribution at the polls, working to defeat what they called "legis-traitors." As part of that opposition, the Arizona Taxpayer Action Committee installed signs stating "voted for Obamacare" with an arrow pointing at the campaign sign of certain Republicans. These signs, which the committee calls the "arrow of truth," were reportedly removed by Robson Monday as Maricopa County Sheriff's Office deputies witnessed the act. However, the citation notes the sign tampering occurred on Robson's own property, and state law exempts property owners from the tampering charges if they alter signs put on their own property without the owner's permission. Robson's attorney, Tom Ryan, said his client is not guilty. "He has not touched a sign," Ryan said of the veteran lawmaker. "He has not tampered with a sign." The citation is for tampering with a candidate's sign, but Ryan said the "arrow" signs Robson is alleged to have removed do not meet the state law's requirement of being a candidate sign. There is no candidate named "arrow," he argued. Ryan said Michael Robinson, a Republican political activist in Robson's legislative district, was captured on surveillance cameras tampering with signs that were supportive of Robson and his running mate, Jeff Dial. Ryan said he intends to file a complaint with Chandler police, as well as the Arizona Secretary of State, charging Robinson with sign tampering. "I've got physical evidence of it," he said. "I'm talking video and stills." Ryan also suspects Robinson has been illegally coordinating campaign activity with Tom Morrissey, who is running against Dial for the GOP nomination for the Senate seat in Legislative District 18. The tampering allegation is reminiscent of a 2001 incident in which then-state Sen. Harry Mitchell was charged with stealing a rival's signs. Mitchell successfully argued the signs were not campaign signs and therefore were not subject to the state penalties. Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-444-8963. http://www.azcentral.com/story/joannaallhands/2014/08/19/bob-robson-campaign-signs/14301771/ The dumb game of campaign-sign stealing Joanna Allhands, digital opinions editor | azcentral.com 4:59 p.m. MST August 19, 2014 State Rep. Bob Robson has been cited for messing with campaign signs that were critical of him, Arizona Capitol Times reports. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is building a case against lawmaker after allegations surfaced from precinct committeeman Mike Richardson. According to Richardson, Robson has repeatedly stolen signs Richardson erected criticizing Robson's vote on Medicaid expansion. It's an interesting allegation, considering that Robson has previously downplayed other negative signs against him. A call to Robson wasn't returned. But the Chandler Republican told the Ahwatukee Foothills News in July, "People can throw anything against the wall, but people have elected me over and over. They know me. They know I care. … These attacks — people will see right through them." There's video of Robson's supposed deed, though I watched the 47-second clip filmed at a gas station and couldn't identify the lawmaker (or the defacement of campaign signs) anywhere in it. The would-be detective ducks below his dashboard to avoid detection and then pulls out behind the truck with a "Robson" license plate. It would be very James Bond. If it wasn't so pathetic. And repetitive. Consider: Then-state Sen. Harry Mitchell landed in court in 2001 on a sign-tampering charge for yanking a sign that he said wrongly linked him to the alt-fuels scandal. The charge was dismissed. John Huppenthal, also a state senator at the time, was acquitted in 2009 for removing a political sign near a polling place. Though he never broke the law, a judge called him "brash" and "impetuous" for wrestling the sign out of an elderly woman's hand. Charges also were dropped in 2012 against Gilbert activist Bobbi Smith for yanking signs near Town Hall that said, "If you can read this sign, Tom Abbott has not taken it … yet." There's a pattern: Someone puts up a sign accusing a candidate of something outlandish. The candidate or a supporter can't take the criticism and yanks it. Someone else witnesses said theft (because apparently, there's nothing better to do in the Southeast Valley at night than watch campaign signs), and the allegations fly. Sometimes, those allegations go to court. But no one – not the candidate, not his opponents and certainly not the average citizen – ever wins.
Smith responds to claim he voted to raise his salary Former Mesa Mayor Scott Smith and Arizona Gubernatorial candidate Scott Smith doesn't like being called the tax and spend socialist he is???? Sadly now days there isn't much difference between a tax and spend Democrat and a tax and spend Republican. They both also want to micro-manage our lives. This article doesn't mention it, but Mesa Mayor Scott Smith also illegally gave millions in corporate welfare to 3 religious colleges he got to move to Mesa. The Arizona Constitution makes it illegal to give corporate welfare to religious entities who who are pushing their religion. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/08/19/smith-responds-claim-voted-raise-salary/14316485/ Smith responds to claim he voted to raise his salary Mark Olalde, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:07 p.m. MST August 19, 2014 Gubernatorial candidate Scott Smith is coming under attack for his votes to raise the salaries of Mesa mayor and city council. Arizona Free Enterprise Club, a "dark money" group spending heavily this election, recently dumped $150,000 into the governor's race for a television ad claiming Smith voted to raise his own salary while serving as mayor of Mesa. "Would you like to snap your fingers and get a raise? Scott Smith would," the ad says. As mayor, Smith voted twice to increase the salaries of Mesa's mayor and council. The motion passed on the second attempt in December. The vote increased salaries of council members and mayor from about $19,000 and $38,000 to about $35,000 and $73,000, respectively. The pay increase will take effect next year. Smith spokesman Drew Sexton called the basis for the attack ad "a non-issue." Find all of the candidate information you need! Need help getting started? Register to vote here. "The fact of the matter is the mayor left his job with the same salary as when he started," Sexton said. The proposal to raise salaries originated with the Mesa Chamber of Commerce, which argued the city's growth warranted a full-time mayor and council. They also noted the last pay increase for those positions had come in the late 1990s. "He was already there full-time, he just wasn't getting paid full-time," said Sally Harrison, president and CEO of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce. "I don't think the job that was done could have been done in a part-time position." In news release, Harrison explained, "The 38th largest city in the nation requires a full-time mayor to help drive economic development and manage its billion dollar budget." After the December vote to raise council salaries, Smith joked, "Boy, if you listen to the rumors, it won't apply to me at all." A month later he announced he would soon step down from his position as mayor to run for governor.
It's a lot easier for the police to get money from the politicians if they lie and claim they under attack from bad guys. As H. L. Mencken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2014/08/20/police-combat-gear-stir-criticism/14324639/ Police in combat gear stir criticism Dennis Wagner, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:14 p.m. MST August 19, 2014 Arizona has seven military bases and numerous National Guard installations teeming with armaments, but if civil unrest ever breaks out in the state, local police also will be able to keep the peace with a tank, assault rifles and other weapons of warfare. Law-enforcement agencies in all 15 Arizona counties have obtained surplus gear from the Pentagon's 1033 program, as allowed under the National Defense Authorization Act of 1997. The escalating militarization of domestic police has come under national criticism during the past week as anti-riot officers in Ferguson, Mo., were videotaped using weaponry and attire strikingly similar to those of U.S. combat troops in Iraq. Since the 1990s, the Defense Logistics Agency has doled out $5.1 billion worth of property to crime-fighting agencies through its Law Enforcement Support Office. The idea, at first, was to give local and state law-enforcement agencies military leftovers with enough firepower to battle narco-traffickers. Then, after 9/11, the arming of U.S. police with combat gear escalated dramatically as departments prepared to fend off terrorism. In 2013 alone, U.S. police and sheriff's departments requisitioned $449 million worth of military merchandise. That's not just machine guns, body armor and helicopters, but office supplies, underwear, air conditioners, cooking utensils and anything else the armed forces no longer need. But some argue that tools of warfare have no place in domestic law enforcement. In June, a national report by the ACLU ripped U.S. enforcement agencies for becoming "excessively militarized." Alessandra Soler, executive director of the organization's Arizona branch, said militarization typically occurs without oversight or training. "Those weapons are now being used against our communities," she added. "There's no reason they need a tank and snipers for a disturbance in Ferguson." This week, amid riots triggered by the police slaying of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, some members of Congress echoed the ACLU's concern while President Barack Obama spoke about the distinction between troops and police. "There is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement, and we don't want those lines blurred," Obama told reporters Monday at the White House. "That would be contrary to our traditions." Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told The Arizona Republic the 1033 program "probably needs to be reviewed, but it's not the cause of the problem." He said unrest in Ferguson stems from a lack of economic opportunity, racial disparity in the police force "and the incitement by some elements that are obviously criminal." However, McCain added, "I've always thought that even though this equipment was basically free, it was not only unneeded, but the cost of maintenance and training to use it is pretty expensive. ... You can make an argument that some of the equipment is needed, and it depends on the locality and the threat and all that, but I think it's hard to justify the requirement for some of it." Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, announced plans to review whether the military surplus program is being misused. And, according to CBS News, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said law-enforcement conduct as depicted in Ferguson has "become the problem instead of the solution." Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., posted his view on Facebook last week: "Law enforcement deserves every resource necessary to do their job, but there is no need for tools of war in a society of peace. The Defense Department's 1033 program is bringing military equipment to local communities across the country, and it needs to stop." About 8,000 enforcement agencies have been approved to receive military surplus. In 2012, after an investigation by The Arizona Republic spotlighted possible abuses of the federal program in Pinal County, the Defense Logistics Agency announced agency-wide reforms, and Sheriff Paul Babeu was directed to retrieve vehicles and other equipment his office distributed to non-police organizations. About the same time, weapons requisitions were temporarily suspended and audited nationwide. On an interactive map recently published by the New York Times to show military-surplus requisitions by state, Arizona stands out with more than 900 assault rifles and 384 body- armor suits to serve and protect. Matt Van Camp, a Payson detective who oversees the 1033 program in Arizona, declined comment on the Ferguson controversy or increasing police reliance on combat hardware. But many law officers and experts defend the use of Defense Department hand-me-downs. "We want this military surplus so we have enough firepower to protect ourselves and the public," said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was among the first in the nation to take advantage of free combat supplies. Included in the sheriff's arsenal: M-16s, a .50-caliber machine gun and a tank. Arpaio said jail tents and armored SWAT vehicles have saved untold tax dollars. The tank is a display item, he added. And the .50-caliber? "No, we haven't used it," the sheriff said. "But it's in the Batmobile, ready." Ken Crane, vice president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, said military items afford vital officer protection when used appropriately. "But they are kind of a knife that cuts both ways," he added. "Are there times that you need that equipment and can justify its use? Yeah. But if it gets used too much, people get that kind of image of police-state mentality." Republic reporter Dan Nowicki contributed to this article.
I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me. Sadly this is the typical view police officers have "I got a gun and a badge and I am above the law" In this editorial LAPD cop brags about supporting the people Constitutional rights. But it's all double talk and his final message is "I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me." http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/19/im-a-cop-if-you-dont-want-to-get-hurt-dont-challenge-me/?hpid=z1 I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me. By Sunil Dutta August 19 at 6:00 AM Sunil Dutta, a professor of homeland security at Colorado Tech University, has been an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department for 17 years. The views presented here are his own and do not represent the LAPD. A teenager is fatally shot by a police officer; the police are accused of being bloodthirsty, trigger-happy murderers; riots erupt. This, we are led to believe, is the way of things in America. It is also a terrible calumny; cops are not murderers. No officer goes out in the field wishing to shoot anyone, armed or unarmed. And while they’re unlikely to defend it quite as loudly during a time of national angst like this one, people who work in law enforcement know they are legally vested with the authority to detain suspects — an authority that must sometimes be enforced. Regardless of what happened with Mike Brown, in the overwhelming majority of cases it is not the cops, but the people they stop, who can prevent detentions from turning into tragedies. [Sorry have to disagree!!!!] Working the street, I can’t even count how many times I withstood curses, screaming tantrums, aggressive and menacing encroachments on my safety zone, and outright challenges to my authority. [Typical police mentality - I got a gun and badge don't question my authority or I will kill you motherf*cker!!!] In the vast majority of such encounters, I was able to peacefully resolve the situation without using force. Cops deploy their training and their intuition creatively, and I wielded every trick in my arsenal, including verbal judo, humor, warnings and ostentatious displays of the lethal (and nonlethal) hardware resting in my duty belt. One time, for instance, my partner and I faced a belligerent man who had doused his car with gallons of gas and was about to create a firebomb at a busy mall filled with holiday shoppers. The potential for serious harm to the bystanders would have justified deadly force. Instead, I distracted him with a hook about his family and loved ones, and he disengaged without hurting anyone. Every day cops show similar restraint and resolve incidents that could easily end up in serious injuries or worse. Sometimes, though, no amount of persuasion or warnings work on a belligerent person; that’s when cops have to use force, and the results can be tragic. We are still learning what transpired between Officer Darren Wilson and Brown, but in most cases it’s less ambiguous — and officers are rarely at fault. When they use force, they are defending their, or the public’s, safety. [Yea, like when your buddies on the LAPD beat the living sh*t out of Rodney King!!!!] Even though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line: if you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you. [Translation to cop talk - "Look motherf*cker, I got a gun and a badge and I'm above the law"] Don’t argue with me, don’t call me names, don’t tell me that I can’t stop you, don’t say I’m a racist pig, don’t threaten that you’ll sue me and take away my badge. Don’t scream at me that you pay my salary, and don’t even think of aggressively walking towards me. Most field stops are complete in minutes. How difficult is it to cooperate for that long? Don’t argue with me, don’t call me names, don’t tell me that I can’t stop you, don’t say I’m a racist pig, don’t threaten that you’ll sue me and take away my badge. Don’t scream at me that you pay my salary, and don’t even think of aggressively walking towards me. [Again - Look motherf*cker, I got a gun and a badge and I'm above the law] I know it is scary for people to be stopped by cops. I also understand the anger and frustration if people believe they have been stopped unjustly or without a reason. I am aware that corrupt and bully cops exist. When it comes to police misconduct, I side with the ACLU: [yea, sure!!!] Having worked as an internal affairs investigator, I know that some officers engage in unprofessional and arrogant behavior; sometimes they behave like criminals themselves. I also believe every cop should use a body camera to record interactions with the community at all times. Every police car should have a video recorder. (This will prevent a situation like Mike Brown’s shooting, about which conflicting and self-serving statements allow people to believe what they want.) And you don’t have to submit to an illegal stop or search. [But if you don't submit, I may beat the living sh*t out of you and then commit perjury if I find anything and say you consented to the search] You can refuse consent to search your car or home if there’s no warrant (though a pat-down is still allowed if there is cause for suspicion). [Yea, sure!!! The pat down search he is refering to is the case of Terry v Ohio, where the Supreme Court flushed down part of the 4th Amendment] Always ask the officer whether you are under detention or are free to leave. Unless the officer has a legal basis to stop and search you, he or she must let you go. Finally, cops are legally prohibited from using excessive force: The moment a suspect submits and stops resisting, the officers must cease use of force. [Yea, it's also against the law for cops to commit murder - but they do it all the time - and get away with it.] But if you believe (or know) that the cop stopping you is violating your rights or is acting like a bully, I guarantee that the situation will not become easier if you show your anger and resentment. [Translation - Look motherf*cker I got a gun and a badge and if you don't bend over and submit I will f*ck you over.] Worse, initiating a physical confrontation is a sure recipe for getting hurt. Police are legally permitted to use deadly force when they assess a serious threat to their or someone else’s life. Save your anger for later, and channel it appropriately. Do what the officer tells you to and it will end safely for both of you. We have a justice system in which you are presumed innocent; if a cop can do his or her job unmolested, that system can run its course. [it's called the criminal injustice system and it doesn't work] Later, you can ask for a supervisor, lodge a complaint or contact civil rights organizations if you believe your rights were violated. Feel free to sue the police! Just don’t challenge a cop during a stop. An average person cannot comprehend the risks and has no true understanding of a cop’s job. [More BS from the police unions] Hollywood and television stereotypes of the police are cartoons in which fearless super cops singlehandedly defeat dozens of thugs, shooting guns out of their hands. Real life is different. An average cop is always concerned with his or her safety and tries to control every encounter. That is how we are trained. [Yep, cops are trained to be at war with the people they pretend to protect] While most citizens are courteous and law abiding, the subset of people we generally interact with everyday are not the genteel types. You don’t know what is in my mind when I stop you. Did I just get a radio call of a shooting moments ago? Am I looking for a murderer or an armed fugitive? For you, this might be a “simple” traffic stop, for me each traffic stop is a potentially dangerous encounter. Show some empathy for an officer’s safety concerns. Don’t make our job more difficult than it already is. Community members deserve courtesy, respect and professionalism from their officers. Every person stopped by a cop should feel safe instead of feeling that their wellbeing is in jeopardy. Shouldn’t the community members extend the same courtesy to their officers and project that the officer’s safety is not threatened by their actions? More from PostEverything: (1) What caused the Ferguson riot exists in so many other cities, too. (2) Michael Brown: Yet another reminder that police see even unarmed black people as thugs. (3) Stop blaming black parents for underachieving kids. (4) My son has been suspended five times. He’s 3. (5) Ferguson police broke the law when they stopped civilians from videotaping them. (6) We keep pledging to study the cause of riots like Ferguson’s. And we keep ignoring the lessons.
I suspect the tyrants on the Phoenix City Council will vote that the First Amendment is null and void and that private citizens can't video tape people with drones. Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio and Phoenix Councilman Michael Nowakowski are the government tyrants sponsoring this bill. I suspect the Phoenix Police are secretly sponsoring this bill because cops don't like it when the people want to police the police. Of course the Phoenix Police will continue to video tape us all with drones. Last I don't have any problem with private citizens who consider it trespassing for people to fly drones over there property and video tape them. Those people have every right to prevent government drones, or drones owned by private citizens from spying on them. Of course the $100 question on that is where in the sky do your private property rights end. Don't ask me, I don't have the answer. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/08/19/proposal-limit-drone-usage-phoenix/14272093/ Proposal would limit drone usage in Phoenix Caitlin McGlade, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:48 a.m. MST August 19, 2014 Drones will increasingly take to our skies as the gadgets get cheaper and easier to use for civilians and the more-sophisticated machines entice cities as cost-saving patrol methods. Experts say that has brought a pressing need for new regulations because existing laws leave much room for gray area No clear rules govern who's watching and who's getting watched by drones in the Valley, even though they're attracting a growing number of enthusiasts who use them to shoot aerial photos and videos. Experts say the growing popularity of drones — from hobbyists who toy with small-scale versions to law-enforcement officials who use more-sophisticated systems — creates a pressing need for new regulations because existing airspace and privacy laws have too many gray areas. That may be about to change in Phoenix. Two City Council members today will unveil a draft ordinance that would make it a crime to use a drone to film, audiotape or photograph people on their private property without their consent. A violation would be a Class 1 misdemeanor, which carries up to a $2,500 fine and six months in jail, according to the proposed ordinance. Each image the person distributed would rack up a separate offense. However, the proposal has many exceptions, which include permissible taping and photographing for mapping or artistic or journalistic purposes as long as the recording shows several residences and no individual is identifiable. The ordinance also would allow violators a defense if the person destroyed the photos or tapes upon learning of the law as long as he or she did not record or photograph children, sex or nudity or distribute the images or recordings. The ordinance sponsors say the reasons it's needed are twofold: to declare "Peeping Tom" laws for the airways and to prepare for potential drone usage by police. "I believe in using technology to its fullest, but I would hate people to have pictures of my kids in the backyard horsing around," said Councilman Michael Nowakowski, an ordinance sponsor. "People abuse technology." The draft language has a long way to go, as both sponsors will look for public input and expert advice. They expect to debut the proposal in an October subcommittee meeting. The demand for regulation is increasing as the popularity of drones grows. An Amazon.com search for drones yields a long list of sleek flying devices equipped with cameras, some even advertised with high-definition recording capabilities. The gadgets range from $35 to the thousands. Jim Allen, a Mesa resident and longtime model airplane flier, bought his for $125. It's called a quadcopter, and he flies it above his property to take pictures of his home. "I think the majority of people that are buying them are doing it from a curiosity standpoint and the fun of doing it," Allen said. "Years ago when I got into the hobby, I strapped a camera to the bottom of an airplane to take pictures of the flying field." Years ago, learning how to fly those planes also took months. But now the devices are so user-friendly that anyone can pick up the hobby quickly, he said. Hence, a growing demand. Teal Group Corp., a Virginia-based aerospace and defense industry analyst team, estimates that the unmanned-aircraft industry will more than double over the next decade, from current spending of about $6.4 billion to $11.5 billion globally. That creates the need for clarity in law like never before, said Troy Rule, an associate professor at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. Rule recently finished a paper that argues for standardized laws that take trespassing offenses from land to sky. Federal law written decades ago designated most airspace above 500 feet as public space regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, leaving anything below that in a gray area. The law allows unmanned aircraft to fly up to 400 feet. The law states that individuals trespass if they fly an object within the "immediate reaches of the air space above someone's property, and by doing so they substantially interfered with that person's usage and enjoyment of their land," Rule said. But what does "immediate reaches" mean? And how do you prove your "enjoyment of the land" was "substantially interfered" with? "It's not clear what it means," Rule said. "Until now, no one really needed to address those questions. Drones are becoming ubiquitous, and they don't necessarily disrupt land uses like low-flying helicopters or airplanes do. No one really knows how to treat these under existing laws." Hobbyists are the fastest-growing customer group, but commercial users may increase rapidly if the FAA allows more-widespread commercial use of drones when it releases new regulations this year. Industries from mapping to agriculture to real estate hope to use drones in their work, said Phil Finnegan, the director of corporate analysts with Teal Group. Twenty-four companies have petitioned the FAA for approval to fly unmanned aircraft for activities, including film and video production, pipeline inspection, aerial surveying, precision agriculture and real estate, according to the FAA. Law-enforcement officials also are starting to use drones. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he is determined to get two: one to monitor Tent City and the other to monitor remote desert areas. Alessandra Soler, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said governments need to pass laws on drone usage if they're going to allow law enforcement to use them. "They can have a legitimate purpose," Soler said. "They can be used in criminal investigations. They can be helpful in searching for missing persons or to fight forest fires. But the problem with drones is that they're extremely powerful surveillance tools that can capture information on not just the target but on everyone else who happens to be nearby." Local push for regulation The council members pushing the regulation said their efforts stemmed more from potential use than resident complaints. A police spokesman said the department seldom hears phone calls from residents fearful of the small, hovering aircraft. And, he pointed out, they're legal anyway. Councilman Sal DiCiccio, the ordinance's other sponsor, said he aims to be proactive as more Valley residents buy unmanned aircraft. Nowakowski said he hears about concerns from his Laveen constituents but was inspired to take actionwhen a few Phoenix Neighborhood Patrol members told him they would like to buy drones. The group of volunteers could save time and gasoline if they simply flew the things over neighborhood streets and watched from a camera rather than drove around in their vehicles, they told him. Patrolling via drone may not stop there. Nowakowski plans to explore whether swapping patrol helicopter hours for drone hours could save money. The Phoenix Police Department already has scaled back its air-support unit by flying fewer hours and cutting programs since the recession's budget cuts began. Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a police spokesman, said the department has no plans to use drones. But the department is no stranger to surveillance tactics. It has flown a plane capable of conducting surveillance from 9,000 feet since 2010, and it has the ability to film activities in public spaces for security and traffic control. DiCiccio said he wants to set clear boundaries around police surveillance. "Everything can be done under the name of security, but what level of individual privacy do we give up to the government?" DiCiccio said. The ordinance would clarify that police need a warrant to record private property, but it would leave much up to exception. Law enforcement could do so, according to the draft language, if in hot pursuit of a suspect, if in exigent circumstances, if documenting a felony crime scene and if searching for a missing person. Joining a trend DiCiccio's office found few other U.S. cities with laws directly targeting surveillance via unmanned aircraft. Sixteen states have enacted unmanned-aircraft laws, and 35 states have considered related bills or resolutions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Arizona's Legislature has seen two attempts to regulate drone usage, but neither made it to a final vote, the ACLU's Soler said. There's a patchwork of laws in other states. Tennessee, for example, identifies 18 lawful uses of unmanned-aircraft systems, including professional or scholarly research and for use in oil-pipeline and oil-well safety. Utah requires that law-enforcement agencies publish annual reports on how they used their drones. States also have criminalized using drones to videotape people on their property, like in Phoenix's draft language. Rule said many of the laws, including DiCiccio and Nowakowski's proposal, are difficult to enforce and address only one problem at a time. He suggested standard rules governing immediate airways: States should deem anything flown into the airspace above someone's property up to 500 feet as trespassing, and cities ought to establish drone zoning, or rules about when and where the aircraft can fly. To aid with enforcement, he argues that states should require owners to register their drones with a licensing agency. He said no states have set that requirement.However, the Philippines have, he said. DiCiccio expects the local language to evolve with discussion. "I want Phoenix to be known as the best place in the country at protecting individual privacy," DiCiccio said. Fewer than 10 states have enacted measures on drones, but about half of have tried or are currently trying. Drones will increasingly take to our skies as the gadgets get cheaper and easier to use for civilians and the more-sophisticated machines entice cities as cost-saving patrol methods. Experts say that has brought a pressing need for new regulations because of gray areas in existing laws.
Family of woman killed by police asks for independent inquiry Hey, I'm not a psychic, but I can tell you - there will be an investigation and Sgt. Percy Dupra who murdered Michelle Cusseaux will be found to have done nothing wrong. There is a slim chance the investigation will say that Sgt. Percy Dupra made a minor, trivial judgement error. And if that happens Sgt. Percy Dupra will get a tiny, tiny slap on the wrist, at most!!!! Sadly you don't have to be a psychic when you make predictions on the results of crooked cops investigating themselves. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/08/19/family-woman-killed-police-asks-independent-inquiry/14271639/ Family of woman killed by police asks for independent inquiry Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton's office said today it will review mental health crisis training officers receive. Protesters also want an independent investigation of last Thursday's shooting. D.S. Woodfill and Joe Dana, The Republic | 12 Relatives of a woman killed by police last week during a mental-health call have appealed to Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton for an independent criminal investigation. Michelle Cusseaux, 50, was shot by Sgt. Percy Dupra on Thursday after authorities say she threatened officers with a hammer at her Maryvale apartment as they tried taking her to an inpatient psychiatric facility. Cusseaux, who struggled with mental illness, her family said, died a short time later. Dupra has been with the department for 19 years. His personnel file, which would show whether he was involved in any previous use-of-force incidents, was not immediately available. Family members, accompanied by attorney Sabinus Megwa and several civil-rights activists, met at the mayor's office Monday morning to ask for an investigation into Cusseaux's death by a third party, such as another police department. "They are responsible ultimately for the shooting death of Michelle Cusseaux, and so it is unfair and unreasonable for them to only rely on the internal investigation and the criminal investigation being conducted by their own department," said the Rev. Jarrett Maupin, who accompanied the family to the closed-door meeting. The mayor and city officials, including Deputy City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr., who oversees the Police Department, and Gerald Richard, assistant to Police Chief Daniel V. Garcia, did not commit to asking for an independent investigation and deferred to Garcia to determine whether a "parallel investigation" was warranted, said Seth Scott, Stanton's deputy chief of staff. "Milton Dohoney indicated that it would take him a couple of days to speak with the police chief and others involved in the situation for him (Garcia) to make an evaluation whether that was warranted," Scott said. Maupin said he would give them until Thursday to respond before seeking help from the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI. Scott said there was "not any specific date that was agreed upon." Sgt. Trent Crump, a police spokesman, said the department's homicide unit conducts up to 30 investigations of officer-involved shootings each year. The investigations have checks and balances, namely oversight by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, that ensure unbiased findings. "Our independent investigator is the County Attorney's Office," Crump said. "They would decide whether portions of the investigation warrant further investigation or prosecution." The investigation of former Officer Richard Chrisman shows the system works, Crump said. Chrisman was sentenced to seven years for assaulting and killing an unarmed man during a domestic-violence call in 2010. Speaking with reporters on Monday, Frances Garrett said her daughter, Cusseaux, developed depression years ago and was eventually diagnosed with serious mental illness. "(It) started to snowball — depression, bipolar and schizophrenia," she said. Garrett said she was the one who requested Southwest Behavioral Health Services, which had been monitoring her daughter, to begin the process of having Cusseaux entered into an inpatient treatment program. The police officers who showed up at Cusseaux's door Thursday were delivering that court order. "I would hate for this to happen to another mother," Garrett said. "I did not ask for Michelle to be another statistic here, another homicide." Benjamin Taylor, a local criminal-defense and civil-rights attorney, said the public must allow the police to conduct their investigation before drawing conclusions. But, he said, the initial facts that police have provided in the case are troubling. "Officers have a tough job, and everybody understands that," Taylor said. "But in this situation, when you know that you're going out there to a scene where you have a woman who is known to be mentally ill ... every tactic should be taken to make sure that this woman doesn't get killed."
GOP candidate Scott Smith's travel brings complaint Oddly, no one has even mentioned that Mesa Mayor Scott Smith violated both the Arizona Constitution and the US Constitution by giving millions of dollars in corporate welfare, or should I say religious welfare to several Christian colleges he brought to the city of Mesa. On question on the following article is why on earth is Mesa Mayor Scott Smith spending our tax dollars globe trotting around the world???? But before you vote for another candidate for Arizona Governor don't get your hopes up. The up coming election for Arizona governor looks like a race where you will get to select from Stalin, Hitler or Mao. And of course your job will be to select the lessor of the evils. Which I think means on every election ballot in Arizona we should have a choice of "none of the above" and if "none of the above" wins the office should go unfilled for the next term. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/08/19/arizona-gop-gubernatorial-scott-smith-travel-brings-complaint/14271623/ GOP candidate Scott Smith's travel brings complaint Mark Olalde, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:49 p.m. MST August 18, 2014 Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Smith is being accused of failing to disclose thousands of dollars in trips he took while Mesa mayor. But state statute appears unclear on whether Smith was required to report the trips. Mesa resident and Red Mountain Tea Party member Gene Dufoe lodged a complaint against Smith with the Secretary of State's Office last week, claiming Smith omitted the travel costs from financial-disclosure documents and therefore broke the law. Records obtained by The Arizona Republic show Smith reported 90 trips around the country and the world during his time as mayor. These included 31 trips to Washington, D.C., as well as several to Chicago, Las Vegas, Denver and Los Angeles. International locations included Italy, China and Saudi Arabia. Dufoe filed his complaint shortly after Republican Doug Ducey's gubernatorial campaign released research on Smith's business, travel and financial records. Ducey campaign members and their supporters have been tweeting allegations regarding Smith using the hashtag "smithshady." The Arizona Free Enterprise Club also unveiled a new TV attack ad last week, which cost $150,000 and lobbed the same allegations at Smith. The trips cost Mesa about $100,000. Because several dozen of those trips were paid at least in part by organizations other than Mesa, Dufoe's complaint argues that Smith was required to disclose them as gifts. According to state law, public officers and candidates must file financial-disclosure forms, which Smith did. The forms require the disclosure of "gifts." The law defines a gift as anything above $500 that is a "benefit received without equivalent consideration and not provided to members of the public at large." On Smith's Travel Authorization and Expense Reports, he lists which organizations paid for his travel when Mesa did not. Most of those trips were for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, of which Smith was the president for the 2013-14 cycle. Other trips were covered by non-profits and universities flying Smith in to sit on a panel or give a speech. The complaint notes that the "gifts included trips to exotic destinations such as Morocco and Mexico City." Nearly all of Smith's foreign travel was paid for by the Conference of Mayors. Smith's campaign released a statement rebuking the complaint and claiming the trips were either beneficial to Mesa or were taken in Smith's capacity as president of the Conference of Mayors. "Developing the relationships needed to advance a region's interests can't be done by simply sending a letter or a tweet. It takes face-to-face discussions to build trust and confidence and grow the type of relationships that work toward the best interests of Mesa and Arizona," the statement said. The Republic spoke with several legal experts who said the law is ambiguous, and does not clearly define what a "gift" is in the case of a public official traveling on public business. Some said the trips were likely not gifts because Smith provided an equivalent service such as speaking at a university's commencement, sitting on a panel for an education non-profit or acting in his role as president of the Conference of Mayors. A look at Smith's travels show at least some of them were directly beneficial to Mesa: • Meetings in Chicago with Cubs management were related to the team's move into a new stadium in Mesa for spring training. • Meetings in Washington, D.C., with the Federal Transit Administration facilitated a light-rail expansion in Mesa. • Meetings in Washington, D.C., with the Federal Aviation Administration were followed by tens of millions of dollars in grants for the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. • Meetings in Washington, D.C., with the Department of Homeland Security resulted in the agency providing immigration-enforcement training for city police. The Secretary of State's Office plans to hand the complaint over to Maricopa County. This has become common practice in the current election cycle, as the office claims it has a conflict of interest with Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who is also competing in the GOP gubernatorial primary. Dufoe sent his complaint to the media but did not return multiple calls and e-mails.
I suspect the folks at the Arizona Republic Editorial Department can't handle their drugs. When the police murder a woman for holding a hammer and you ask the question "Did police use excessive force to handle a mentally ill woman?", I suspect that means something is screwed up with your logic and reason!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2014/08/18/michelle-cusseaux-mental-illness/14266383/ Did Michelle Cusseaux have to die? Editorial board, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:29 a.m. MST August 19, 2014 Our View: Did police use excessive force to handle a mentally ill woman? It's hard to say, but the case raises important questions. -PNI abrk Cusseaux shooting A mother calls for help and a daughter winds up dead. Those are stark facts. But at the intersection of mental illness and law enforcement, nothing is simple. The case of 50-year-old Michelle Cusseaux, shot and killed by Phoenix Police Thursday after she threatened officers with a hammer, is a tragedy that defies easy explanations. An internal police review and an investigation by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office into the shooting may answer the most obvious question: Did police use excessive force? Cusseaux had a serious mental illness that her mother said included bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and depression. She also had six felony convictions, a long history of drug abuse and had reportedly threatened mental-health workers. She needed help. Police arrived at her door to serve a court order to transport her to an inpatient mental-health facility. She met them with a hammer — and was shot dead. Police face danger in many forms during the course of a day's work, and a hammer can be a deadly weapon. However, the four officers knew they were dealing with a seriously mentally ill woman. Why weren't they ready with non-lethal means of controlling her? That is one of the questions the investigations need to answer. Malik Waheed, Francis Garrett and Rev. J Maupin hold a news conf at Phoenix Police Headquarters on the death of Garrett's daughter Michelle Cusseaux, who was fatally shot by Phoenix police. But what happened to Michelle Cusseaux is not just about the police. It is symptomatic of a larger, systematic failure to meet the needs of the mentally ill. People with mental illness too often wind up in the criminal justice system or the emergency room because they did not get services that could prevent a crisis. The Phoenix Police Department delivers an average of 10 mental-health ordersa day, the same kind of order they were bringing to Cusseaux. On-going efforts seek to increase law-enforcement awareness of mental-health issues. Jim Dunn, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Arizona, said Phoenix police have been working productively with advocates. Mary Lou Brncik is founder of David's Hope and director of the Arizona Mental Health and Criminal Justice Coalition, groups that work to increase treatment and reduce incarceration of people with mental-health issues. She has a different opinion. "The Phoenix Police Department talks at us, but they don't listen to us," she said. Dunn said he requested a meeting with Phoenix Police Chief Daniel V. Garcia after Cusseaux was killed, which has not yet been scheduled. It should happen soon. The sense of frustration expressed by Cusseaux's family can have a direct impact on efforts to get people to reach out on behalf of loved ones who need intervention. The stigma about mental illness has long prevented people from seeking treatment. Fear of law enforcement should not become another barrier. Phoenix police must move quickly to address the perception this incident creates, even as investigations ferret out the specific facts. The larger community also needs to shoulder some responsibility. The persistent lack of services for those with mental-health problems compounds the challenges police face. The community helps people through physical health problems. We need to do the same when the disease is of the mind.
Iraq??? Nope Ferguson, Missouri
The Police - 1965 to 2014
The drug war means the police never have to say their sorry
The drug war means never having to say you’re sorry
By Radley Balko August 18 at 10:03 AM
Remember the story about the Georgia toddler whose chest was blown open by a flash grenade during a botched drug raid?
Here’s an update:
Habersham County officials say they do not plan to pay for the medical expenses of a toddler seriously injured during a police raid.I’ll just state the obvious here. If there’s a law that prevents a local government from reimbursing a family to repair a child nearly killed by the negligence and ineptitude of local law enforcement officers, then that law needs to be changed.Bounkham Phonesavah, affectionately known as “Baby Boo Boo,” spent weeks in a burn unit after a SWAT team’s flash grenade exploded near his face. The toddler was just 19-months-old and asleep in the early morning hours of May 28. SWAT officers threw the device into his home while executing a search warrant for a drug suspect.
Habersham County officials are defending their decision not to pay, but the child’s family isn’t giving up.
After weeks of recovery at two different hospitals, Channel 2 Action News was there in July as the little boy walked out of a hospital with his family.
He is doing better, but late Friday afternoon, his family’s attorney told said the family’s medical bills are mounting.
“But at this point, the county is refusing to pay,” said attorney Muwali Davis.
Habersham County’s attorney provided the following statement, saying: “The question before the board was whether it is legally permitted to pay these expenses. After consideration of this question following advice of counsel, the board of commissioners has concluded that it would be in violation of the law for it to do so.”
There is also an update to the Jason Westcott case, which I posted about last month. Westcott was killed when he grabbed a gun to defend himself as Tampa police raided his home for drugs. Westcott’s home had previously been broken into by a criminal intruder who had threatened to kill him. Westcott reported the incident to Tampa police. According to Wetscott’s boyfriend, the police advised Westcott to arm himself and to shoot to kill if anyone tried to break into his home. Months later, the same police department sent armed men into the same house to look for pot. They claim that an informant had bought marijuana from Westcott. They found a tiny amount of pot after the raid — about $2 worth. They first claimed they began investigating Westcott after complaints from neighbors about drug dealing. When local reporters could find no evidence of these complaining neighbors, the police revised their story to say that the investigation began after a tip from their informant.
So here’s the update:
A Tampa Police Department internal review has concluded that SWAT team officers acted appropriately when they fatally shot a 29-year-old Seminole Heights man during an unsuccessful drug raid.It’s hard to believe that they knocked and announced here, at least loud enough to notify anyone who might have been inside. If Reyes didn’t hear them from the couch, how could Westcott, from behind a closed door? Given that there was no pot in the house to speak of, and that the two had already interacted with police over the intruder, it seems unlikely that they would have neglected to come to the door in order to hide something.The review, documented in a 415-page file provided to the Tampa Bay Times in response to a public records request, found that police Cpl. Eric Wasierski and Officer Edwin Perez “feared for their lives and the safety of others” when they shot Jason Westcott to death in his home on the night of May 27.
“Based on a thorough review of the totality of the circumstances and the evidence present, it is clear that both Wasierski and Perez were in the unfortunate situation of having to utilize deadly force for their protection and the protection of others,” Deputy Chief Brian Dugan wrote in a memo.
The Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office had concluded in June that the police officers were justified in shooting Westcott . . .
On May 27, a BearCat armored car carried SWAT officers to Westcott’s home. As they exited the vehicle and walked toward the front door, Cpl. Bryan Felts, the team leader, loudly announced, “Police, search warrant,” according to multiple officers present.
At the door, Felts knocked and announced the police team at least three more times, team members said. When nobody answered, the officers let themselves in — the door was unlocked.
Westcott’s boyfriend, Israel Reyes, was on a couch in the living room. The first officers inside moved past him to the closed bedroom door.
Wasierski, who was carrying a shotgun, opened the door and immediately saw Westcott on the other side raising a gun.
“I immediately saw … a white arm with the pistol coming toward me,” he later told investigators. “So I’m fearing this guy’s about to shoot me or this — this gun’s gonna fire at me. So I squeeze two off.”
Wasierski then fired a third round. Perez, behind him, fired his handgun twice. Westcott was hit by one bullet from the pistol and two shotgun slugs; his fatal torso wound came from a shotgun slug, according to the autopsy report.
In any case, I’ll go ahead and state the obvious again here. If the police didn’t violate any Tampa Police Department policies or procedures during the investigation, raid and killing of Jason Westcott, then here’s something wrong with the policies and procedures.
One more reminder:
Amount of meth allegedly sold to a police informant before the raid that nearly killed Bounkham Phonesavah: $50 worth.
Amount of pot allegedly sold to a police informant before the raid that did kill Jason Westcott: $160 worth.
Anyone think either of these police actions made it even marginally more difficult to get meth in Habersham County or to score some pot in Tampa?
Radley Balko blogs about criminal justice, the drug war and civil liberties for The Washington Post. He is the author of the book "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces."
Michael Brown was shot from the front, had marijuana in his system
Does this mean it's OK for the cops to shoot and kill any of the 40,000+ medical marijuana patients in Arizona???
"Brown had marijuana in his system when he was shot and killed by a police officer on Aug. 9 in Ferguson"I don't know what if fact on this. I read one other story that said the cops Michael Brown was shot 2 times in the back and 4 times in the front.
But even if Michael Brown was a Black, pot smoking shoplifter like the police are trying to demonize him as that still isn't a good reason for the police to murder him.
County investigation: Michael Brown was shot from the front, had marijuana in his system By Mark Berman, Emily Wax-Thibodeaux and Wesley Lowery August 18 at 12:34 PM Michael Brown was shot in the head and chest multiple times, according to Mary Case, the St. Louis County medical examiner. While Case declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation into Brown’s death, another person familiar with the county’s investigation told The Washington Post that Brown had between six and eight gunshot wounds and was shot from the front. In addition, Brown had marijuana in his system when he was shot and killed by a police officer on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, according to this person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The report from Case’s office was released to the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office on Friday night but has not been made public. This report is part of the county’s official investigation into the shooting, but it is one of three autopsies being conducted. Brown’s family and attorneys also requested its own autopsy, which was carried out by Michael Baden, a medical examiner who released preliminary details from his review on Monday. In anticipation that Brown could be vilified by the results of the drug test, conducted as a routine part of the autopsy, protesters have consistently insisted that Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown, should be required to submit to one as well. “What was in the system of that cop when he was pumping bullets into that boy’s body?” asked a protest leader, shouting into a megaphone, during a rally on Friday afternoon. Residents and protesters have noted that allegations of marijuana use have been used in the past by some in an attempt to disparage the character of shooting victims, including in the Trayvon Martin case. Baden said Monday he had great respect for Mary Case, the medical examiner in St. Louis County, and said he expected that her review would show similar results to his. “It sounds consistent,” Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Brown’s family, told The Washington Post. Brown’s attorneys believe Darren Wilson may have fired more than six shots, but “we wanted to err on the side of caution.” The family gave permission for a medical examiner with the U.S. military to conduct a third autopsy, which was requested Sunday by the Department of Justice. Crump said he didn’t know anything about marijuana being found in Brown’s body. Baden and Case often speak at the same conferences, and Baden has attended lectures she gives on autopsy reports. But a source familiar with the issue said that she was not aware he was conducting an autopsy. Case said Monday that she was not bothered to hear that additional autopsies would be conducted. “I’m not upset at all,” she said. “This is highly controversial case and it’s good that everyone interested in it can have a say.” Adam Goldman contributed to this report.
Even if you don't smoke marijuana this is one good reason to legalize it. It's a waste of your tax dollars to pay the police to arrest people and send them to prison for a victimless crime that hurts no one. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/08/18/marijuana-legalizing-letter/14216647/ Some more arguments for legalizing marijuana D. Ludwick 9:01 p.m. MST August 17, 2014 Republic editorial writer Linda Valdez, like many advocates of marijuana legalization, points to the increase in tax revenue ("Colorado: Even the stoned can avoid taxes," blog, azcentral.com, Thursday). Let me identify a few more arguments I think are more convincing to those undecided on the issue. A recent ACLU report finds that in 2010, states spent $3.6 billion on law enforcement for arresting possessors of marijuana, diverting police from valuable areas of public safety. That same year, 20,291 Americans were imprisoned solely for possessing marijuana. Throughout the previous decade, 7,295,880 were arrested for marijuana possession. Studies (too many to list here) show that law enforcement has little effect on the usage and availability of marijuana. Surveys show that 30 to 40 percent of Americans have tried marijuana. Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have criticized the War on Drugs. Unlike a discussion of tax revenue, this is really about reducing spending and eliminating wasteful, inefficient laws. — D. Ludwick, Phoenix
Why executions can't (and shouldn't) be sterilized As long as the government executes people for crimes, innocent people will be executed. That's the main reason I am against the death penalty. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2014/08/13/medical-executions-joseph-rudolph-wood/14015333/ Why executions can't (and shouldn't) be sterilized Kenneth Goodman, AZ I See It 6:21 p.m. MST August 16, 2014 Ethicist: It's a ghastly mistake to think health professionals are the most appropriate agents for killing prisoners. One might think that after some 4,000 years of drafting rules to govern the death penalty, we might be able to get it right. But we can't. And as Arizona's botched, bungled and blundered execution last month of Joseph Rudolph Wood again makes clear, the notion that health professionals are most appropriate agents for killing prisoners is a sad and ghastly mistake. MONTINI: Wood's execution wasn't botched MORE: Reporter describes execution A society convinced it needs to kill killers is in a tight spot. The guillotine is gruesome; hanging is old-fashioned; firing squads are messy; gas chambers evoke Nazi death camps; electric chairs are macabre and have unintended consequences. (Since 1890, the only form of execution with no botched attempts is the firing squad.) The effort to "medicalize" executions emerged after a previous attempt to bring executions into the modern era, the electric chair, too often did not function as intended. In Florida, for instance, one electrocution had flames shoot from the inmate's headpiece; in another, the prisoner bled profusely from his mouth. If a murderer could be dispatched with an infusion managed by a physician, nurse, physician's assistant or emergency medical technician in a sterile environment, the process would at least look dignified. Perhaps it did, until we saw enough of them go wrong. In one case, again in Florida, Arizona's sister in making a hash of lethal injections, it took more than a half-hour of repeated needle sticks to find a suitable vein; and in another, the prisoner writhed and tried to speak during the process. The problem of finding an adequate vein is common — the record for failure is an Ohio case in which, after two hours of executioners being unable to insert an IV, the governor ordered the process halted. In some such cases, surgeons are summoned to do a "venous cutdown," in which an incision is made in the skin to expose a vein, allowing an IV to be inserted directly. Someone trained as a surgeon for that? Arizona inmates executed since 1992: No attempt to prettify these executions will ever work. Using doctors and others to try to civilize the practice is a deceptive and unethical ruse. There are at least three things wrong with the use of health professionals to kill prisoners. The first is that it is incompatible with ethical medical practice. Trained as healers with millennia of teaching that their proper role is to reduce suffering and sometimes to forestall death, the very idea that health professionals would participate in the intentional killing of prisoners is a bitter contradiction. The American Medical Association is unequivocal: "A physician, as a member of a profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so, should not be a participant in a legally authorized execution." Even those physicians, nurses and others who support the idea of capital punishment should refuse to participate in one. The second problem is this: Because of the generally perceived prestige of the medical professions, the use of medicine's trappings is less an attempt to avoid constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment than a kind of public-relations stratagem. Yet what could be more unusual than graduates of medical, nursing and physician-assistant schools inserting needles into people strapped to gurneys (sometimes after cutting them open), with the intention of ending their lives against their will? The third reason lethal injection is wrong is there is no credible way to make it work. Even if suitable veins were easy to find, we still need to know what chemical cocktail will quickly and painlessly kill someone. Pharmacologists say one of the drugs used in Joseph Wood’s execution may have contributed to his death taking two hours. As Mr. Wood's execution makes clear, we actually have no good evidence to say in advance that a particular dose of a particular potion will do the trick for a particular person. January was a busy month for lethal injection, with six U.S. executions carried out; four different chemical protocols were used. If this were science, we would systematically collect data on all executions and conduct a reproducible analysis. We would, that is, make lethal injections a kind of experiment. What we have done is haphazard. We share notes between states. Officials sometimes visit other states to see similar processes. Execution logs are studied, autopsy reports are reviewed, post-mortem blood samples are analyzed. The goal is the same goal of biomedical research — to find what works, or works best. Lethal injection has become a kind of unregulated and sloppy human-subjects research. The problem is that if we wanted to make it legitimate, we would need to follow the rules governing such research. But that leads to absurdity: Those rules, shaped since Nuremberg, require informed consent, review by a kind of ethics committee and the opportunity for "participants" to opt out. Any lethal-injection "research" must therefore violate U.S. and international rules. Debates over the morality of capital punishment traditionally address the question whether killing people who have done really bad things is itself permissible. These interesting and important debates pit the demands of justice against the idea that any killing not in self-defense could be acceptable. On one side are those who argue that some crimes are so severe, brutal or cruel that only a life for a life provides justice. Kenneth Goodman.jpg Kenneth Goodman(Photo: handout) The other side is perhaps best expressed by Ron McAndrew, the former warden of Florida State Prison who, after supervising three executions, wrote, "Here I want to say that one must be careful in searching his soul ... one may just find that God is there and that He does not support the barbaric idea that man should execute man." Excepting those cases in which we have condemned the wrong person, those who are executed are deserving of punishment. Criticisms of the means of capital punishment might be agnostic as to the morality of capital punishment itself. If you really must kill killers, then shoot them, throw them off cliffs or behead them. But do not hide behind the Constitution and sully the health professions. It is not simply that this will not work. It is also wrong. Kenneth W. Goodman is a professor of medicine and philosophy at the University of Miami, where he directs the Miller School of Medicine's Bioethics Program.
Militarizing police fails to serve and protect Don't blame the cops for this. Our elected officials are 100 percent responsible for letting the police change from cops who pretend to protect us to a heavily armed military force that terrorizes us. Our elected officials can and should stop the police from becoming the heavily armed military units they have become. Also our elected officials are responsible for letting the police change from a group that arrests real criminals for real crimes like robbery rape and murder. To a tyrannical police force that arrests people mostly for victimless crimes drug war crimes or victimless religious crimes like prostitution and gambling. The police didn't magically over night morph into a group that terrorizes the public, rather then protects the public. The police did it under the eyes of the elected officials who let them. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2014/08/17/militarizing-police-fails-serve-protect/14215145/ Militarizing police fails to serve and protect Editorial board, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:23 a.m. MST August 18, 2014 Our View: Ferguson's lesson? A paramilitary police, because it treats citizens as the enemy, encourages resistance. Erick Erickson and Joan Walsh agree on little. He's editor in chief of the conservative website RedState.com. She's a columnist for the liberal Salon.com. In the aftermath of the shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old in Ferguson, Mo., they found common ground. "Policemen who spend their days writing speeding tickets were clad in armor, behind helmets and shields, riding in armored personnel carriers with guns mounted on top," Erickson wrote. "More and more, the police are suiting up to contain and control the population they are supposed to serve." From Walsh: "The images Wednesday night should wake all of us up to the alarming militarization of local cops all over the country. How did a local police department get tanks and trucks and body armor that look like it all was designed for the streets of Baghdad and not a little city outside St. Louis?" The answer: The federal government armed the Ferguson police, just as it has police and sheriff's departments from Maine to California. Police agencies in that hotbed of unrest, Yavapai County, have received six armored vehicles, including a mine-resistant one, according to an eye-opening New York Times interactive graphic based on Department of Defense records. Maricopa County departments have received 11 armored vehicles, 406 assault rifles, five helicopters and two airplanes. The Pinal County Sheriff's Office got so much surplus military equipment it gave some to non-police agencies in violation of the rules. The federal government's 1033 program, as it's called, may have had noble intentions. There may be instances when a major metropolitan agency needs military hardware. But when you give police agencies military equipment, it should come as no surprise they will also embrace military tactics. The unintended result is profound. Police agencies have become paramilitary units, resulting in the haunting scenes from last week: police in camo, perched on an armored vehicle and training assault weapons on protesters carrying nothing but signs. You expect that in a totalitarian country, not a Midwest suburb. As Erickson noted, it is more control and contain than serve and protect. Libertarians and liberals have for years raised alarms about this. They were met with yawns. In June, the House of Representatives voted down a measure to partially defund the 1033 program, 355-62. Elected officials don't like being seen as soft on crime. Or standing in the way of federal pork for the local cops. But do they really want to be seen supporting what transpired in Ferguson? If this program continues unabated, we will be treated to repeat occurrences. It should be instructive what happened in Ferguson when the Missouri Highway Patrol took over. Officers arrived in blue. They treated protesters as fellow citizens, not as a threat. The commanding officer walked with them. Violence subsided. And when rioters tried to capitalize on still raw tensions, normal police tactics worked. A paramilitary police, because it treats citizens as the enemy, encourages resistance. The message it sends is one Americans have rebelled against since before 1776. Police should be partners, and most want to be. They are better partners in blue than they ever will be in camo. That's why they should eschew the military surplus and why Congress should revisit its June vote.
They tell us one of the reasons we need government is to do the things the private sector can't do. If that is true why the f*ck is the government always entering partnerships with the private sector to do stuff???? I suspect one of the reasons is so the private sector entity can do things that would be illegal for the government to do. Here in Tempe, the government works with the private sector to put on the Tempe Festival of the Arts twice a year. The folks in the private sector that put on the Tempe Festival of the Arts then ban many forms of free speech would would be illegal for the city to Tempe to ban. The folks in the private sector that put on the Tempe Festival of the Arts then ban "gang bangers" and other low life from entering the Festival of Arts, something that would be illegal for Tempe to ban. So the bottom line is that many of these government / private sector partnerships are done to get around Constitutional limitations on government power. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/08/18/madison-district-charter-high-school-partnership/14219409/ Madison district partners with charter to open new high school Eugene Scott, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:01 a.m. MST August 18, 2014 A central Phoenix mother last year wasn't sure where to send her son — then an eighth-grader at a top-ranked Madison Elementary district school — to high school. Hygeia Villafane looked at the nearby high schools, and she wasn't impressed. The campuses closest to her — Central, Camelback and North high schools — earned C grades from the state. She had heard feedback from friends and acquaintances about fights and negative environments at some schools, and that concerned her. So when she heard Madison district officials had partnered with a charter organization to open a new high school, she called it a "no-brainer." "I worked with Madison, and I know their reputation," she said. "If they're going to collaborate with anybody, it's going to be a good school." Madison district officials this month became the first elementary-school district in Arizona to open a charter high school by partnering with a charter organization. Villafane's son, Seth Curry, began classes at the new Madison Highland Prep on Aug. 5. The high school shares its campus with Madison Park Middle School in central Phoenix. They use some of the same resources: the fields, the cafeteria, the library, the bus system. AZCENTRAL The Phoenix area's top 10 charter schools "This was overwhelmingly supported by the community," said Robin Stamp, former president of the Madison governing board. "It's been a long process. We didn't jump into this to chase some new trend. A lot of thought and deliberation went into this." But the move has its critics. Some local school leaders said it will deplete talented students and much-needed cash from the Phoenix Union High School District. Charter schools are hardly a new phenomenon in Phoenix. And the charter movement continues to grow across Arizona — a state where school choice reigns — creating tension with traditional public-school districts. Origins The Madison Elementary School District has about 6,000 students enrolled in eight elementary and middle schools in central Phoenix. Six of the schools received an A grade from the state this year. Tim Ham, who recently retired as Madison's superintendent, said the district has a broad geographic reach, with nearly 50 percent of the student body coming from outside the district. "Parents travel a long ways to bring their children here," Ham said. "We have them coming as far as Litchfield Park and some out of Chandler." The board decided in May 2013 that it wanted to offer its students another alternative after they graduated from middle school. Kerry Clark had applied to open a charter high school for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, when he discovered that the Madison district wanted to partner to open a high school. "They were interested in creating a seamless pre-K through 12th grade experience for their families," he said. "We met, and we found that we had common ground." Clark became the principal of Madison Highland Prep, near 14th Street and Campbell Avenue. He has spent more than 15 years teaching, leading and consulting for charter schools. The charter and the district created a 40-page legal collaboration agreement. "It's more than carrying the Madison name," district spokesman Jay Mann said. Clark said a lot of planning has gone into the logistics of adding the high school to the campus. The high-school students will use the middle school's soccer and football field, the gymnasium and the track, among other resources. The district also previewed the STEM-focused curriculum program, and leaders at both the charter and the district received some of the same leadership training. "There is an interest by both entities to work together to create seamless educational programming," Clark said. Once the high school has time to get established, some of the high-school students will tutor students at the middle school, which also is STEM-focused. "When they leave the eighth grade, they'll know what to expect in ninth grade," Clark said. The idea to open a high-school charter school to serve an elementary district isn't necessarily new. The Alhambra Elementary School District opened a district-run charter high school several years ago, but it quickly closed because of low enrollment, school officials said. However, the state no longer allows elementary-school districts to open charter high schools, said Eileen Sigmund, president of the Arizona Charter School Association. The charter-school association helped get Madison Highland Prep off the ground. The organization created a group called New Schools for Phoenix that is investing $2.5 million toward opening 25 new A-rated charter schools within the Phoenix Union High School District's boundaries by 2020. "What's been confusing about Madison Highland Prep is this is not a district-sponsored charter school," Sigmund said. "It is a partnership between the district and a charter to meet community request and demand." The pushback Some local school leaders said Madison Highland Prep could deplete Phoenix Union of the talented incoming freshmen from the Madison district who help elevate the academic performance of Arizona's largest high-school district. Madison kids often score higher on standardized tests and sometimes help improve their classmates' performance, officials said. "There's no way that this can be seen as taking place in a vacuum that won't impact the Phoenix Union district," said Andrew Morrill, president of the Arizona Education Association, the state's teachers union. "People in the community should be asking questions about how is this improving, not the marketing strategies of the charter company, but the education of the students — all students — in that area." Morrill said Madison Highland Prep also likely would not be as inclusive as the Phoenix Union district. "It is commonly known that charter schools as an industry tend to cherry-pick students of a certain type," he said. "You will not see anything close to the same percentage of special-education students or English Language Learner students that you see in traditional neighborhood district schools." In addition, the Phoenix Union district may see financial ramifications from the new high school since itreceives funding based on student enrollment. Morrill said a charter taking any of the district's 27,000 students would leave an already cash-strapped district with fewer resources. However, Madison officials downplayed the impact, saying the high school has limited enrollment to 450 students. This semester, the school has about 150 students enrolled in the ninth and 10th grades, officials said. Also, only 25 percent of Madison alums enroll in Phoenix Union schools, Ham said. Most students go to Sunnyslope in the Glendale Union High School District; Arcadia in the Scottsdale Unified School District; Brophy College Preparatory; and Xavier College Preparatory, he said. "Phoenix Union offers some really great programs for kids, but the community still has some lingering beliefs about the schools," Ham said. Phoenix Union Superintendent Kent Scribner said those negative perceptions are inaccurate. "I know many perceive large urban schools as dangerous places with low-income minority populations, but we believe our students are amazing," he said. Although a C school district, according to the state Department of Education, Phoenix Union has more stellar programs than some realize, Scribner said. The district has two A schools, including one on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix that collaborates with the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix. The district also has Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs. Scribner said the attention should not necessarily be on opening charters, but on creating better schools in the community. "Arizona is known for its quantity of charters, not necessarily its quality," he said. "It's my hope that these new charters that come along are high-quality and do offer specializations to parents and students that choose them." Beyond Arizona Education experts said that as school choice grows in popularity, more school districts will find themselves not just competing with charter schools but other school districts joining the charter movement. "This game is being played out in different places all over the country," said Guilbert Hentschke, professor at the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education. "Initially, charters were so miniscule that they were not noticed. As they've grown, they've become larger and the stakes are getting higher." Hentschke said he doesn't expect this trend to subside anytime soon. In fact, he predicts that more elementary-school districts will discover new ways to compete with nearby public high schools. "I can see why an elementary district would want to create a high school. And I can see why the folks who have a high-school district would be on the defense," he said. "It's going to put all schools in the more market-sensitive position, one way or the other."
We own the city streets!!! Why the f*ck should we pay to park on streets we own???? One reason the government uses to justify parking meters is that there isn't much parking available in the downtown area and that by charging for parking will keep people who don't really need to go downtown from going downtown. But that's 100 percent BS. The main reason the city of Phoenix raised the parking meter rates and expanded the parking meters hours is to shake us serfs down for more money. They also recently raised the parking meter rates and hours in Tempe. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/08/18/phoenix-expands-parking-meter-hours/14218029/ Phoenix expands parking-meter hours City of Phoenix expands hours from 8am to 10pm every day of the week, including holidays Dustin Gardiner, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:26 a.m. MST August 18, 2014 Parking for a weekend ballgame or evening concert just got more expensive in downtown Phoenix. Free night and weekend hours at parking meters in downtown and central Phoenix come to an end today as the city beefs up enforcement hours to rake in more cash for its strapped coffers. The city is expanding meter hours to 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day of the week, including holidays. Free parking had been commonplace after 5 p.m. and on weekends. Phoenix leaders increased meter hours and rates in June to raise money to help fix a budget deficit. Officials say they hope the changes also will increase parking turnover and reduce traffic by encouraging people to walk, bike or ride mass transit. But the hike in parking-meter rates won't take effect until some time in November, when rates will increase to a range of 50 cents to $4 per hour, up from a flat $1.50. Rates will be demand based, meaning the city will charge more for parking near major events, such as sports games, concerts or other attractions at US Airways Center and Chase Field. Some residents and college students worry the changes will hurt businesses in the downtown core, an area that's grown rapidly in recent years with the addition of Arizona State University and a burgeoning cultural scene.
Wow!!! Sounds like the Glendale City Council has been sold to the special interest groups that give them bribes, oops, I mean campaign contributions. I sure am glad we no longer have to put up with the bullsh*t cause by Arizona Cardinals games in Tempe. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/glendale/2014/08/18/glendale-parking-costs-permanent/14219407/ Glendale's lack of event parking proves costly A brief history of the Westgate Entertainment District Kaila White, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:55 a.m. MST August 18, 2014 A Hummer limousine sat gridlocked in traffic outside the Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale on a recent Saturday evening, waiting to enter the packed parking lots while school buses shuttled people away. Arizona Cardinals fans on motorcycles tried to zigzag their way out of the parking lots as women in high heels ran toward Jobing.com Arena, where Justin Timberlake was about to take the stage. The sports and entertainment district saw a rare explosion of activity, with a sold-out Cardinals preseason game at University of Phoenix Stadium and the packed concert a few hours later at the nearby arena. Apart from a traffic jam, the dual events also caused another problem: a $38,500 parking bill for Glendale. That's because the city is contractually obligated to provide parking for all events at the stadium, but it does not have enough permanent spaces to deliver. Between same-day events, stand-alone football games and other big-ticket affairs, the city has spent almost $300,000 since 2012 on leasing extra parking spaces, according to city estimates. Glendale also spent about $830,000 in costs associated with the obligation, including construction of driveways to temporary lots and the paving of spaces at Westgate the city now pays to lease. "This is the only (agreement) of its type. Only in ... the zany world of Glendale," Glendale City Councilman Gary Sherwood said in an e-mail. For the events earlier this month, the city paid $27,500 to lease just more than 11 acres of grassy land south of the stadium for Cardinals fans to park on during the game — land owned by the Cardinals. The same day, Glendale also paid New Westgate LLC, which manages the eponymous shopping center, almost $11,000 for parking. Sherwood said the arrangement is "peculiar" and the council has had robust debate on it. But, he said, "this will probably occur again." The city does get some revenue from parking fees at the arena, along with ticket surcharges. But that money helps offset the $15 million the city pays each year for the Arizona Coyotes' owners to manage Jobing.com Arena. The city is obligated to provide parking for University of Phoenix Stadium because of a contract it signed in 2003 with the Cardinals and the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority, which owns and controls the stadium. Glendale must provide 11,000 parking spaces for NFL games and other events at the stadium, 6,000 of which must be near Westgate. Some are found at farther sites, such as Raymond S. Kellis High School about a mile and a half away — hence the school buses. The remainder of the obligation is usually fulfilled by spaces the city owns around the arena, but since arena parking was full with Timberlake fans, the city had to look elsewhere, including the Cardinals' own land. "That's like me renting your driveway so you can park in it," said Randy Miller, who is running for a seat on the Glendale City Council. "How did we get on the hook there? How did we negotiate that deal? The whole deal was a negotiation to ensure the city of Glendale is in no way capable of making a profit off of anything that happens." Glendale is the only city in the Valley that has written itself into such a contract, Sherwood said — neither Phoenix nor Scottsdale has any contracts related to sports that inadvertently require the city to lease parking, according to those cities' officials. This dual-event expense happened once in 2013, when there was a music festival at the arena and a football game at the stadium, costing the city $35,000 in a similar setup. The city also incurs temporary-parking expenses on a yearly basis in order to provide enough parking for the Cardinals' entire season. The expense will likely keep recurring until the city builds a parking garage in the Westgate area, which is planned for 2018. The $45 million, 4,000-space Westgate Parking Garage is the largest project in the city's 10-year capital-improvement plan. There had been a $25 million escrow fund to build a parking garage at Westgate, funded by Steve Ellman, Westgate's former developer and a onetime co-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes. Half that money ended up in the city's general fund instead, and Ellman got half of it back. Parking has been a contentious issue between the Cardinals and the city since the announcement of the construction of the Tanger Outlets mall in 2012. The team and the sports authority threatened to sue the city that year for $67 million when more than 3,000 game-day parking spots were eliminated to make way for the mall, so that summer Glendale approved about $1 million in expenses to build new parking spaces and roads and lease others by the time the Cardinals' season started in the fall. NFL executives have also raised concerns about the city's ability to provide adequate parking for the Super Bowl, which Glendale is hosting in 2015. The City Council in January approved an agreement to rent nearly 1,700 parking spaces for the Super Bowl from New Westgate LLC for between $34,721 and $52,082, depending on the number of spaces available at the time. As for other events, Sherwood said the city has asked the stadium and the arena not to book events on the same day, but event planners at both venues said they were unaware of the conflict. It's a rare occurrence, and if it were to happen more often, it would be because the city was attracting more events, which everyone wants, said Cathy Colbath, the city's interim executive director of transportation services. "Any of that activity going on at the arena and at Westgate is definitely beneficial to the city," Colbath said. "It's great to see the facilities working at a peak." When the Cardinals' land isn't being leased for parking, the team usually uses it for pregame festivities,said Cardinals spokesman Mark Dalton.