Qualified Immunity

Two police officers beat the crap out of a homeowner before arresting him for standing on his own porch. The two officers were dressed in plain clothes and driving an unmarked police car. They saw a man, later identified as Shase Howse, standing on the porch. Howse was standing there, trying to figure out which pocket his keys were in.

The two officers, who never identified themselves as being police officers, asked him if he lived there. Howse answered in the affirmative, but the officers asked him if he was sure that he lived there.

The cop then asked Howse if he was sure he lived there. “Yes, what the fuck?” Howse responded, still unaware that he was talking to a cop. The cop didn’t like his bad attitude, so exited the unmarked police vehicle and asked him again if he lived there.

The officer then told him to put his hands behind his back because he was under arrest. Howse refused, telling the men that he lived at the residence and that he’d done nothing wrong. The two men then threw Howse to the ground, and handcuffed him while Howse resisted. It was after he was tackled that Howse realized the men were police officers. They had not once identified themselves and produced identification.

Howse’s mother, who also lived at the home, testified that she saw the end of the confrontation, and that she watched the cops beat him once he was on the ground and in cuffs by straddling him and punching him repeatedly in the head. Charges were dropped, and the eventual lawsuit went all the way to SCOTUS, who said the cops had qualified immunity before dismissing the case.

This could easily have been me. I was once stopped by a bogus cop, but in my case I drew a gun on the asshole. What if he had actually BEEN a cop? It would have likely resulted in a gunfight, and there is a pretty good chance that I and one or more cops would have been killed. They would be completely immune.

Qualified immunity has to go.

Shooting Analysis

From the male cops perspective, this was a good shoot.

The female cop in this incident just stood there watching. Had she deployed her Taser, there is a chance that the male cop wouldn’t have had to use his handgun. What followed was 40% her fault and 60% suicide by cop. There are those who would disagree, but they would be wrong. Sure, the woman initiated the incident by coming at the police with a lethal weapon in her hand. That’s on her. However, the cops are supposed to be trained and equipped to deal with these sorts of things. The fact that the female cop didn’t even TRY to deploy or even DRAW her Taser, deprived this woman of her only chance at not getting shot, and for that reason, the female cop is partly at fault. .

Still, there are morons in the comments claiming that the cops didn’t have to shoot her, claiming that instead they could have used a Taser, fired warning shots, or (I am not kidding) shot the knife out of her hand. For Christ’s sake, these people are fucking morons and they vote.

Booty Patrol

A guy driving a truck marked like a Border Patrol vehicle with “Booty Patrol” emblazoned on the sides was given a ticket for $115 because it had red and blue lights on it. He paid it. Then police found his website, one where he was trying to get social media fame, then arrested him for impersonating an officer.

Now we all know that I am not a lawyer, but I of course have an opinion on the matter.

  • He was already convicted of the offence and paid his fine because of the red and blue lights. Arresting and charging him again for that is double jeopardy.
  • Unless there is a “Booty Patrol” police office, he isn’t impersonating any cops with those markings. A green strip isn’t enough for impersonation charges. These charges are bullshit.
  • To publicly admit that you only charged him after you saw his social media page should be admissible in court, as it is evidence that they are trying to infringe on his First Amendment rights.

Don’t forget the Florida case where a man was arrested for having an “I eat ass” sticker on his truck. A police officer saw it and demanded that he remove it. The man refused, and was arrested for resisting an officer and obscene writing on a vehicle. The charges were dropped, but so was the man’s lawsuit, with the judge citing “qualified immunity.”

Though it was supposed to shield government officials only from lawsuits without merit, it instead shields them from ones with merit, including the two-dozen cops who blew up an innocent man’s home during a SWAT raid on the wrong residence, a cop who conducted an illegal search and ruined a man’s car, and cops who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars

The Only Ones Who Can Investigate Ourselves

Florida Republicans are proposing a law that would not permit local and county officials to investigate complaints against police. Instead, the state investigators would do so.

At first blush, it sounds like a great idea- one that is intended to prevent cops from investigating themselves and finding no wrongdoing. There is one key problem, however. Buried in the last line of the story:

Also, the bill would bar ordinances or rules about civilian oversight of law-enforcement agencies in investigating misconduct complaints.

This law would ensure that the government is the only one with the power to decide if it overstepped its bounds. Another layer of bureaucrats that would take away the rights of citizens. No thanks, Republican holster sniffers.

Goodbye, Annie

Just when I thought we were able to get away from the “cops abusing authority” trope. A cop was assisting the sheriff’s department with a call about an unpaid child support complaint, when he noticed a deer that local residents had been feeding. When the deer approached the officer and allowed him to pat its head, he took it upon himself to declare that it was a domesticated wild animal, declared that it was illegal, and then proceeded to pin the deer to the ground, pulled out his service weapon, and shot the deer in the head. In full view of horrified children that had considered the deer to be their friend.

Pokagon Band Tribal Police released a statement saying it was arresting a suspect at the same property when the deer was “euthanized”. That is copspeak for “he was following our nonexistent procedures, and we are whitewashing the entire thing.”

In summary, a “bad” cop does something illegal that he would gladly arrest anyone else for. Other cops witness this, standing there with their hands in their pockets. The “good cops” whitewash the entire thing and expect us to “back the blue.”