http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…

A man was handcuffed, arrested and dragged before a court after falling off the settee with laughter while watching Have I Got News For You.

Christopher Cocker, 36, was enjoying the BBC1 show when a joke made by panellist Paul Merton had him doubled up with laughter.

He collapsed on the floor - but the thud startled his downstairs neighbour who, believing he had collapsed, called police.

Officers arrived and said Cocker was initially co-operative but became ‘aggressive’ when they asked his name and tried to shut his front door.

He was eventually disabled with parva spray through the gap and arrested.

Jonathan Taylor, defending, said: ‘The officer accepts in his statement that he struck my client and then sprayed him again.

‘He was handcuffed and unceremoniously thrown into the back of a police van. When he ended up in a police cell he was asking himself how all this had happened.’

Mr Taylor told Blackburn Magistrates’ Court, Lancs., said that having informed the police he was the only one in the flat and he was fine, his client could not understand why they wanted his details.

‘With hindsight he should just have told the police what they wanted to know and they would have gone on their way,’ said Mr Taylor.

You could have Mr. Taylor but then we wouldn’t have these wonderful police abuse stories to post about.

This is just another example of people thinking it’s the governmnets job to handle every situation. If you think the guy upstairs just collapsed get off your fat ass and check. Call emergency medical services after you confirm he’s not just tripped or fallen on the floor in a fit of laughter.

We don’t know how angry this guy actually got but I don’t doubt that the cops overreacted. In just the few times I’ve gotten a chance to say no to them they were hardly put into the best of moods.

http://abcnews.go.com/…

The order from Judge Barbara Walther - whose decision to hold the children in temporary state custody was rejected by the Texas Supreme Court last week - calls for more than 430 sect children to be returned to their families starting this morning.In order to be reunited with their children, Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints parents must agree that the children will stay in the state, must have their fingerprints taken and must take parenting classes.

Though the children will be allowed to live with their parents, the order does not end Texas Child Protective Services’ investigation into allegations of sexual abuse on the sect’s Yearning for Zion ranch.

The state claims that the sect forces underage girls to marry older men and breeds young men to become sexual abusers.

Walther’s order requires sect families to cooperate with the ongoing investigation, including allowing CPS to interview the children at unannounced times and to give the children medical and psychiatric evaluations.

I guess I was a bit too optimistic prior but this is not surprising. Even though the original call is absolutely known to be fake they continue this infringement on their community. These people are being prosecuted because they have a different culture. No one has come forward to claim they were being held against their will. This is little different from the government taking every single child in a town because someone made a crank call to CPS claiming one of the children in the town was molested.

How is it that a court can rule this an illegitimate raid and yet put these requirements on the parents? When these types of rulings are made aren’t it supposed to negate the governments actions?

The people that support this kind of thing need to watch out. At some point your beliefs will be in the minority and these same busy bodies with guns will come to your home.

Viewers respond to KOB photographer arrest

Eyewitness News 4 has received hundreds of comments since airing footage Thursday of a KOB photographer getting arrested while covering a story.

The photographer was handcuffed and cited for disobeying a police officer. He was released about 90 minutes later.

He was videotaping an early morning crime scene where a driver had exchanged gunfire with police officers in Albuquerque.

The photographer says he was asked to leave the scene and go to a media staging area. However, he says officers did not tell him where that area was located.

More than 600 comments from around the country were posted on the KOB.com forum in response to the arrest footage.

One viewer wrote, “Cops just got shot at and this reporter wants to argue for this officer’s name and badge number?”

Another viewer had a different view, saying “This is a no-brainer. What the cop did was against the law, period. APD needs to take responsibility.”

Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh says an independent review officer will look at footage of the incident.

And I’m sure they will… and chuckle.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/…

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Texas ruled that Child Protective Services (CPS) abused its discretion by seizing 468 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints ranch in Eldorado. Eugene Volokh has a roundup of the legal analysis.

CPS invited some mental health workers to the various shelters to help care for the hundreds of children. The mental health workers were disturbed by what they saw of CPS’s treatment of the women and children, and their written reports corroborate the bitter complaints of the FLDS mothers. I don’t think the news media has given this aspect of the story the attention it deserves — so here are some excerpts from the various reports that have been made public:

• “Women were constantly lied to about where their children [were] and when they could see their lawyers and about when they would be reunited with their children.”
• “Constant reminders that the adult women were only guests and that they were not in charge of the children and what CPS did to them. [The children] belonged to CPS now and they could talk, interrogate, separate and treat them any way [CPS] wanted. This included physical exams and x-rays without [parental] supervision.”
• “I sat with Audrey while three of her children were removed for six hours of questioning.”
• “The children arrived healthy and happy and left sick and crying.”
• “The door to the room was almost constantly open. Even when the women closed the door to reduce noise during naptime or to dress themselves or the children, it was almost immediately opened again [by a CPS worker].”
• “The women were lied to and denied access to their attorneys.”
• “At least 5 mothers reported that at night CPS [workers] circled their beds, held flashlight in their faces & then would sit inches away from them as they tried to sleep. Mothers reported that they were scared CPS would take their children during the night.”
• “The CPS workers were openly rude to the mothers and the children, yelled at them for trying to wave to friends and family members in surrounding shelters, threatened them with arrest if they did not stop waving to others, continually reminded them that the women were guests only and could be made to leave if they did not cooperate, threatened the mothers with never seeing their children again if they did not cooperate, and ignored requests for anything.”
• “The children were amazingly clean, happy, healthy, energetic, inquisitive, well behaved, and self-confident; while the mothers were consistently calm, patient, and loving with their children.”
• “Living conditions in the coliseum were not conducive to good health for anyone, and the presence of hostile CPS workers who spied on them constantly, kept them awake at night by shining lights in their faces and talking and laughing created enormous stress for the mothers and children. None of them slept well or enough.”
• “Try to imagine all these children from age 1 to 12 years, left in that coliseum [separated from their mothers] with only CPS and [police officers] to care for them. The only others were mothers whom CPS decided were under 18 and kept in their custody along with their children. The floor was literally slick with tears in places. A baby was left in a stroller without food and water for 24 hours and ended up in the hospital. A 4 year old boy was so terrified that he snuck away and hid and was only found after the coliseum had been emptied the next day.”
• “I witnessed a young mother named Rosinith be required by CPS to board the bus back to the ranch, though her young child was in the hospital with 104 degree fever and even though the child’s physician had personally requested the mother’s presence at the hospital. This event haunts me still, and I cannot imagine such a heartless act.”
• “By the second day, I was ready to run in front of the CNN cameras to shout that there was a travesty happening inside those walls…. Of course I was cautioned not to interfere in a ‘crime scene investigation.’”
• “I have always been proud to be an American and a Texan but this incident is not what America or Texas stands for and something must be done to undo the horrible injustice that has been done.”

CPS denies the allegations of mistreatment. But the excerpts above are eyewitness reports from objective/disinterested social workers that CPS invited into the shelters.

Justice is still not served. Not until restitution is paid and those who brought this about are punished directly. Now we need the state to return the children kidnapped from Strong City. Jeff Bent, Wayne Bent aka Michael Travesser son, was on Free Talk Live yesterday for those interested.

http://www.fortmilltimes.com/…

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is dumping the “Always Think Forfeiture” motto it’s used for more than a decade to help combat crime.

U.S. Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, and others complained that multipurpose tools engraved with the slogan could be seen as encouragement to seize property, including guns, of law-abiding citizens.

The pocket tools were to be given to federal, state and local law-enforcement agents participating in the agency’s asset forfeiture training programs, as a reminder of one way to disrupt or dismantle criminal organizations.

None of the engraved tools, stored in the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., have so far been distributed. And now they won’t be, at least until the engravings have been removed.

The agency will no longer use the slogan on materials given out during its training programs, said Robert Browning, chief of ATF public affairs in Washington, D.C., adding it was never intended to undermine lawful gun rights.

Sali had said that the ATF “through its engraved motto, sends a message that these rights are secondary to the government’s apparent goal to ‘always’ seek forfeit of private property.”

The tools also included the words “ATF - Asset Forfeiture.”

Sali’s outrage over the customized pocket tools is just the latest incident in which the ATF has been in the crosshairs of Idaho’s gun-rights lawmakers. U.S. Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo placed separate holds on President Bush’s 2007 nomination of federal prosecutor Michael Sullivan to lead the agency, saying the ATF was being too tough with gun dealers, including a Twin Falls shop that was stripped of its license.

The ATF had revoked the gun dealer license at Red’s Trading Post in Twin Falls after record-keeping violations. A U.S. District Court judge then stayed sanctions after finding the agency had record-keeping problems of its own. That case is ongoing. Sullivan still hasn’t been confirmed to lead the ATF.

By law, the agency can seize firearms, ammunition, explosives, alcohol, tobacco, money and certain real property if such items are involved in breaking the law. Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies rely on asset forfeiture to break up criminal activity, on the contention some groups would continue to operate if the only thing officers could do was lock some leaders in prison.

ATF has used the “Always Think Forfeiture” slogan for more than a decade on materials for training classes it conducts across the United States to increase awareness for officers about forfeiture laws. This is the first time a complaint has been lodged, the agency said.

“We’ve had it brought to our attention from several different congressional members,” Browning said. “In hindsight, we certainly would not have used this slogan if we knew that it would cause so much concern among the public. Nothing in this program is intended to deprive the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”

Sali, who said a constituent brought the engraved tools to his attention, said he’s drafting legislation to prevent the agency from using similar slogans in future training campaigns.

“I’d hate to put a time on it,” Sali spokesman Wayne Hoffman said of the proposed bill. “It’s something we just started. It’s one of the congressman’s priorities.”

It’s a nice gesture but it’s not like they will stop using asset forfeiture just because they stop using the slogan. These people are above the law and will continue to steal from people as they desire.

Like how they make it out to be that primarily it’s gun owners effected by this? That means a good portion of the public who are anti-gun won’t pick up on the seriousness of this “tool.” Though if we throw in this story I’d bet those same people would get a bit upset but then the anti-immigrant, pro drug war crowd wouldn’t care.

http://reason.com/…

• On January 7, 2008 a paramilitary police unit in North Little Rock, Arkansas conducted a drug raid on Tracy Ingle’s home. Ingle says he had fallen asleep for several hours, and was asleep when the raid happened. He awoke when the police took a battering ram to his door. Another team of officers approached form the outside of the house, and shattered the window to his bedroom.
• When he awoke, Ingle says he thought his home was being invaded by armed robbers. He reached for a broken gun, a pretty clear indication that he had no intention of killing anyone, but rather was trying to scare away the intruders. When he grabbed the gun, an officer inside the house fired his weapon. The bullet hit Ingle just above the knee, shattered his thigh bone, and nearly severed his lower leg. When the outside officers heard the shot, they opened up on Ingle, hitting him four more times. According to Ingle’s sister, one bullet still rests just above Ingle’s heart, and can’t be removed.
• Ingle was taken to the hospital, and spent a week-and-a-half in intensive care. He was then removed from intensive care-still in his hospital pajamas-and taken to the North Little Rock police department, where he was questioned for five hours. He was not told he was suspected of a crime, and his family wasn’t allowed to speak with him. After the interrogation, he was arrested and transferred to the county jail.
• Ingle spent the next four days in jail. He says he was never given his pain medication or his antibiotics. Though hospital nurses told him to change his bandages and clean his wounds every 4-6 hours, Ingle told the Arkansas Times that jail officials changed them only twice in four days. Ingle’s wounds became infected during the time he was in jail.
• Police found no illegal drugs in Ingle’s home. They did find a scale, which Ingle’s sister tells me was an extra she was given when she worked at a medical testing facility. She used it in her jewelry-making hobby. They also found a bunch of small plastic bags. Again, Ingle’s sister says these were part of her business. “I was leaving the country for a while, and I stored a lot of my stuff at his house,” she told me. “The scale and bags were mine, and are both common things to have for anyone who makes jewelry.” Police also found the broken gun and a broken police scanner.
• From those items, the police charged Ingle with running a drug enterprise. They also charged him with assault, for pointing his broken gun at the police officers who had just barged into his home. The judge set Ingle’s bail at $250,000, explaining that it had to be set high because Ingle had engaged in a shootout with police-never mind that Ingle didn’t fire a shot. Ingle was able to sell his car to pay a bail bondsman. But with no car, his injuries render him basically immobile. He had to walk two miles on crutches and an infected leg to his hearing last week.
• The police obtained a no-knock warrant for Ingle’s home about three weeks prior to the raid. The warrant itself (pdf) reads like boilerplate, with no specific references to Ingle (other than his address), or why he specifically posed a risk to police safety, or of disposing of drugs before coming to answer the door. It mentions no controlled buys. It doesn’t even mention an informant. In fact, someone scratched out “crack cocaine” and hand-wrote in “methamphetamine” on the type-written warrant, suggesting a cut, plug, and paste job. The Supreme Court has ruled that police must show case-specific evidence of exigent circumstances in order to be issued a no-knock warrant. The mere fact that it’s a drug case isn’t enough. The warrant for Ingle’s home contains no such specific information. Many times, information specific to the investigation is contained in the affidavit the investigating officer files for the search warrant, not in the warrant itself. Forrester says she has called the North Little Rock Police Department more than 20 times in an effort to obtain a copy of the affidavits. She says they at first refused to return her phone calls. When she was finally able to speak with a lieutenant, he became angry when she told him she had contacted the media. She then says he told her to “dream on” when she asked for copies of the affidavits.
• According to Forrester, Ingle’s neighbor had a direct line of sight into the bedroom, and saw the entire raid. His account initially matched Ingle’s. But that changed. “We have a witness, a next door neighbor that saw the entire incident,” Forrester told me. “He came forward on his own to give a statement to the family. Police never questioned him until a month or so after the shooting, at my insistence. They kept this neighbor in his home, and questioned him for at least four hours, refusing to let the man’s wife come home, of for other people to see him. When the police finished intimidating the man, they told him specifically that ‘he did not see what he thought he saw.’ The neighbor is now afraid to talk to the media.” I have not yet been able to speak with the neighbor.
• Ingle’s family was able to put up $1,000 to retain an attorney, but can’t afford the extra $6,000 the attorney has asked to represent Ingle. Ingle is therefore still looking for representation. He has no health insurance, and no money to pay for medication, or to continue treatment of his injuries.
• Last week, after the Arkansas Times article appeared, the judge in the case issued a gag order, preventing Ingle and any future attorney he may have from talking to the media about what happened to him. This is puzzling. Before today there had been exactly two articles about this case-not exactly a media circus. It’s hard to understand why a gag order was necessary. It’s only real purpose is to prevent more people from learning about what’s increasingly looking like a railroading. And it’s only effect is to lend more support to the possibility that it is, in fact, a cover-up and railroading.
• May 6th the gag order was lifted.

Nothing here is all that new and therefore unfortunately not surprising. Thankfully his gun was not operational as he may have killed an officer and therefore would have definitely been killed as a result. The odd part of this is that he survived. What is particularly disgusting that they continue to press charges with absolutely no evidence. Sickening.