Boys and Their Toys: Just a Couple of Kidders...

More from the annals of Boys and their Toys, Dan Kelly at the Reading Eagle reports on the investigation into TASER usage by two West REading, Pa cops:

Berks County detectives are investigating two West Reading police sergeants for allegedly stunning fellow officers, a relative and others with their department-issued Tasers, officials confirmed Thursday.

Matthew R. Beighley and Ryan Phillips had been suspended and are under investigation for improperly stunning people, said Joseph A. Brown, president of the Berks County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 71 and a borough detective.

Police department records show Beighley and Phillips were suspended with pay April 26 and returned to duty Thursday.  Brown called the incidents embarrassing to the department and all police.

Daniel P. Emkey, a Reading attorney representing borough Officer Chad T. Marks, said Beighley approached Marks from behind and stunned Marks in the buttocks as he was talking to a borough employee in borough hall in late March or early April.

Marks immediately reported the incident to another sergeant, who told Chief Edward C. Fabriziani, officials said.  When Fabriziani took no action, Marks filed a written report with Fabriziani and Brown. Brown and Fabriziani took the matter to the district attorney's office May 2, officials said.

Marks declined comment and referred questions to Emkey.

"They got 2½ months of paid vacation and now Chad Marks has to resume working in that environment," Emkey said.

Officials said Beighley also allegedly stunned a family member in the chest.

During a 2010 Halloween party in Phillips' house, officials said, Phillips allegedly stunned Beighley and a woman, and Beighley stunned another officer and a woman at the same party. Officials said videos of some of the incidents were posted on YouTube until investigators seized copies of the videos and had them removed from the site.

District Attorney John T. Adams confirmed county detectives are investigating the incidents and that they have given their 60-page report to Fabriziani, Mayor Shane J. Keller and borough Solicitor Daniel P. Becker.

Fabriziani, Keller and Becker were unavailable. Beighley and Phillips could not be reached for comment.

Chief County Detective Michael J. Gombar said the investigation continues.

"We are investigating incidents of possible criminal wrongdoing within the ranks of the West Reading Police Department," Gombar said. "We are not an internal affairs unit. Our detectives investigate allegations of criminal acts that violate the state crimes code."
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Cops, what a bunch of jokers!  Har, har . . . must have been real funny watching their pals thrash around with a TASER probe in their asses! 

I wonder how it is that these Cops were able to muscle down the YouTube videos?

Bountiful City Pays Man Repeatedly TASERED Pulled Over for Crooked License Plate

Maybe you recall this story, a Utah man was pulled over by the City of Bountiful, Utah police.  He got out of his car, unarmed, hands at his sides and implored the police officer to tell him why he was stopped.  The cops deployed the TASER on him,  mmmmmmmm . . . 8 or 9 or maybe 10 times. 
The City of Bountiful is paying,.  Hey, that means you, taxpayers.  Congratulations.

Here's a link to the local news account at ABC4.com.  At this link you can watch the police video of the confrontation without the commercials, etcetera.

Boys With Toys: Now a New and Improved TASER, The ShotGun, Say What . . .?

You build it and the cops will buy it.  Better yet, they'll unleash the technology on you!  Tampa Bay's WTSP Channel 10 news has this report  (at the link check the video) on the new shotgun-based taser technology.  Grrrrreeeaat!

"There's a new TASER in town that looks like something out of a James Bond movie. It packs a powerful punch and can stop the bad guys in their tracks longer than a stun gun can.   Polk County Sheriff's Office SWAT team members say the taser has already saved lives [ed. sure, they do!].

They point to a terrifying scene from inside an Auburndale home last Christmas when a convicted sex offender, 27-year-old Jason Robinson, was accused of brutally attacking his brother and threatening to kill the entire family.  In victim's statements to police Jason's brother Adam Lee Robinson explained to detectives after the alleged incident, 'He starts stomping on my ribs and he actually jumps up and stomps on my testicle.'  Jason is accused of barricading himself inside the house and that's when the Polk County SWAT team members moved in. Paul Butler is a member of the SWAT team and says, 'So we pushed the front door of the house open with that to try to get his attention. I utilized a shotgun that we have with the TASER XREP round."' [ed. OK how did this TASER change anything?]

Polk County Sheriff's Office is one of only about two dozen law enforcement agencies in Florida using the powerful new TASER Extended Range Electronic Projectile (XREP).  It's fired from a 12 gauge shotgun from up to a 100 feet away. It's 14 grams, has wing like fins that spread open as it takes flight. It has painful probes and pins that stick into your body. It packs all the powerful punch and stopping power of a stun gun and is enclosed in a 12 gauge shotgun shell and when it hits you it locks up your muscles.

John Angleton is the taser coordinator for the sheriff's office and says, 'It's the most excruciating pain imaginable. It locks everything up. For one you cannot move. You can breathe because you're screaming at the top of your lungs.' [ed.  Can't you just hear the glee?  Imagine how much fun they'll have firing this Baby!]

The TASER XREP keeps a suspect down for 20 seconds [ed. if not foreever] instead of 5 seconds which is how long the traditional taser keeps a suspect down. The traditional taser also has to be fired from a closer range within 21 feet.  While TASER XREP rounds cost a hundred dollars each SWAT team members say they're worth the price because they save lives.  [ed. You betcha!]

They say the rounds saved Jason Robinson's life. Deputy Butler says, 'When he fell - he fell within inches of a butcher knife that was on the floor but thankfully he fell on top the XREP round. That round immobilized him and allowed us to get in and secure him.' Butler adds, 'So that 20 seconds gives us plenty of time to get into the home or get into wherever we're at or close the distance between us and the suspect and take them into custody before they're able to do something to harm themselves or harm us.'

The TASER XREP is only available to law enforcement agencies and not the general public. While the cartridges are expensive Polk County Sheriff's Office only allows their SWAT team to use them."

Boys With Toys: 64-Year Old Injured Man Being Treated by EMTs Tasered by Marin County Sheriff's Deputies in His Own House, Nice!

Big hat tip to KC Crime Blog for this illustrative story of Boys with Toys.  KGO-TV Channel 7, San Francisco reports:

"A Marin County man has filed suit against the Marin County Sheriff's Department for an incident in which he says law enforcement officers went too far. Peter McFarland was Tased inside his own home as his wife watched, begging officers to stop.  On June 29, 2009 McFarland and his wife Pearl were returning home from a charity fundraiser just before midnight. McFarland injured himself as he stumbled and fell down the long steps to his front door.

'Mainly it was to my knee and the front of my leg, my shin,'McFarland said.

His wife called paramedics, who helped him into the house and treated him. As the paramedics were leaving, two sheriff's deputies arrived.   'All of a sudden, they just showed up, they came in here like there was a fire going on, like a gunfight was going on,' McFarland said.   What happened in the following minutes was captured on a camera mounted on the deputy's Taser.

The deputy tells McFarland he is going to take him to the hospital because he may be suicidal.

'We want to take you to the hospital for an evaluation, you said if you had a gun, you'd shoot yourself in the head,' the deputy can be heard saying.

McFarland says it was just hyperbole. He was tired and in pain.

The deputy orders him numerous times to get up or else.   'Stand up, put your hands behind your back or you're going to be Tased,' the deputy says.   McFarland keeps refusing.  The exchange goes on for about five minutes; his wife keeps pleading with the deputies not to Tase him, saying he has a heart condition.   Then, McFarland tells the deputies in no uncertain terms to leave.  As he gets up to go to bed, McFarland is Tased. Not once, but three times.

'There's got to be a problem in terms of training and on supervising deputy sheriffs in the county; it's hard to imagine something so shocking could happen,' McFarland's attorney John Scott said.   McFarland says he never had any suicidal thoughts. In fact, he considers himself lucky to be alive.  'I'm a survivor of pancreatic cancer; one of 4 percent in this country,' McFarland said.

Scott says his client was arrested, jailed and charged with resisting arrest. A judge later dismissed the charge. Scott says the deputies had no search warrant or legal reason to enter McFarland's home and even if they thought he was drunk and suicidal, Scott says the Tasing was excessive force.   ABC7's calls to the Marin County Sheriff's Department were not returned"
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At the link you can watch the video of the incident.

Boys and Their Toys--Sick!

There's an amazing website called Behind the Blue Wall dedicated to reporting stories of law enforcement officers involved in domestic relations violence, which is endemic to that testosterone-laden profession.  They have an account of a Dellroy (Canton-area) police officer Kevin McCann who plead guilty to using his taser on his girlfriend's two young daughters.

Piece of shit.

This is pretty strong stuff, and the sort of story I see all the time but which I would prefer not to relate because it is darkness of the sort that I don't process very easily.  If this is a subject that interests you, you should become a follower of Behind the Blue Wall.   I am reporting this story because it fits in with the continuing theme of this blawg which is that entrusting law enforcement with dangerous weapons results in the endless acts of unfettered mayhem.   Cause and effect, why do we tolerate it?

The Matrix Says, Kick Your Ass. Grandma!

The Lousiville Courier-Journal is relating the story of the 57 year old Okolona, Ky. grandmother, Sharon Ramage, who was ironing clothes in June of 2007 when a flash grenade exploded at her back door (pic of home) , the door was shattered with a 45 pound ram, and a SWAT team stormed in.  The team comprised of Lousivelle Police threw Mrs. Ramage to the ground and handcuffed her; oh yeah, they seriously re-injured her post surgical knee.  A helicopter was hovering in the sky over the house and a $300,000 armored vehicle was at the stand-by.  Why? 

No reason. 

Well, not quite, the Louisville police were looking for her son, because he had processed film at the local Wal-Mart snd it contained a non-pornographic nude image of her son, Michael Ramage with his two young sons.   By the way, Michael Ramage was nowhere to be found. 

Ultimately all charges against Michael Ramage were dropped for the simple reason that he had not committed any crime.

Why did this occur?  Well apparently, the Lousiville Police and police departments around the country use a "scoring matrix" to assess risk assessments in serving warrants, which explains why we've been seeig these ridiculous looking armored vehicles pop up all over he internet that local police are acquiring as the toys, er, tools of law enforcement.  As explained in the news account, the police are "slavishly" using these scoring matrixes to determine when to go commando, and God forbid if you're in the way, or for that matter the wrong person, they will kick your ass. 

Grandma is suing, and the U.S. District Judge has given the Louisville Police until Monday morning to submit a response to her motion for summary judgment for violating one or two of her Constitutional rights.  

Let's be rational for a second, if justice is nothing more than a computer algorithm we are in a whole lot of trouble--the great late Phillip K.Dick forecast this dystopian future in Minority Report. 

Don't Leave Your Gun In The Sh#@!%r

The Indianapolis Star is reporting on an unidentified Indiana State Trooper who left his gun in a Lowe's home improvement store restroom.  Unfortunately, for the trooper he was long gone from the Lowe's when it dawned on him that he was no longer packing heat, he backtracked to the store's facilities but the gun was long gone. 

A store employee found the weapon and turned it into the Fort Wayne Police and our unnamed Trooper is now looking at disciplinary action.  According to a Slate magazine post a Department of Homeland Security audit through 2008 documented 289 lost DHS weapons most of which were lost in mens' rooms.  Reassuring, huh?

By the way so many inappropriate scatalogical puns were left out of this post, I hope I get credit somewhere for good taste and my self-restraint.  

Boys and their Toys--New Nebraska State Trooper Patrol Cars

Check out some of Nebraska's new patrol vehicles, pictured.   I kid you not, Nebraska's Boys in Smokey Hats decided they needed three of these babys.  These Army Suplus LAV-25s are all terrain, all weather and ready to take on the Bad Boys who pass through the Cornhusker state with bad intent.  The original report is at the Omaha World-Herald.

Boys and Their Toys--Part 6 The Police Let a Little Boy Play with a Micro-Uzi and Die

According to the Boston Globe website, Masslive.com this story  was all over the news.  I confess, I missed it.  Apparently the fat pig in the pic is Edward P. Fleury former Police Chief of Pelham, Mass, and a major gun-fondler.  He was the organizer of an annual let's play with our assault weapons outing at which a 8 year old child was allowed to shoot a "mini-uzi."which I take to be a smaller version of the famous Israeli submachine gun.   This is from Buffy Spencer's update of legal proceedings against Fleury, and others:

"A June 1 trial date is set in Hampden Superior Court for the first defendants being prosecuted in connection with the 2008 shooting death of an 8-year-old boy at the Westfield Sportsmen’s Club.

Prosecution and defense lawyers agreed this week to the trial date for former Pelham Police Chief Edward B. Fleury and the club. They face manslaughter charges for the death of Christopher K. Bizilj during a gun exposition on Oct. 26, 2008.   The boy, of Ashford, Conn., died after suffering a wound to the head when he lost control of a Micro Uzi submachine gun he was firing."
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Nice. 

Maybe my lack of compassion for these asshats is predicated on my lack of interest in weapons.  I have no desire to hold, or shoot, or hear weapons.  I was 17 when I went into the U.S. Army, and almost 21 when I was released.  I spent three years with weapons large and small, these devices are utilitarian machines intended to kill.  They make bone rattling noise--I lived at Fort Knox for 3 months, the firing never stops--morning noon, nor night.  When my time in the Army was over, I had no further interest in guns.  Likewise, I was trained and schooled in mechanics, after my time in that job was over--I have no desire to go play with ratchets, wrenches, and screwdrivers. 

Yes, I can understand that there are men and women who are curious, go to a range (at the proper age,)  Shoot the guns, go home.  Get over it.

Boys and Their Toys--Part 3

Following up on Bad Lawyer's first post on the Taser, Canada's business journal, the Chronicle Hearld has this report  on Taser International which according to their article has all kinds of new toys already in the pipeline, and soon to be on the Boys in Blue near you. 

Let's just say Taseer International plans to electrify you!