TMMT
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Stop of a man in a hoodie for carrying a weapon lacked reasonable suspicion
The officer suspected that defendant was carrying a gun in the pocket of his hoodie, but it was based on his experience as an officer and no other facts about the hands or what he might be holding. The Eighth Circuit [surprise!] finds this not enough for reasonable suspicion under Terry and Arvizu. United States v. Jones, 09-1731 (8th Cir. June 8, 2010):Like the district court, we conclude that Officer Hasiak lacked the requisite reasonable suspicion that Jones was carrying a concealed firearm in his hoodie pocket, as opposed to some other object, or no object at all. The critical question is, again, whether Hasiak had a “particularized and objective basis” for his suspicion. Arvizu, 534 U.S. at 273. Given the deference we must accord both Hasiak’s training and experience and the inferences drawn by a resident district judge, this is a close question.
The government emphasizes that Jones by clutching the outside of his goodie pocket exhibited one of the firearm-carrying clues Hasiak had been trained to observe, and Hasiak’s testimony that, on ten other occasions, the suspect he stopped and frisked was in fact armed. But this evidence was not as conclusive as the government suggests. On cross examination, Hasiak admitted that he was unable to see the size or shape of whatever was in Jones’s hoodie pocket, and that Jones exhibited none of the other clues Hasiak had been trained to look for, such as walking with an unusual gait, turning that part of his body away from the officers’ view, adjusting his grip or the location of the item in his pocket, or running away. Compare United States v. Jackson, 175 F.3d 600, 601-02 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 828 (1999). Government counsel then failed to clarify whether the other ten suspects to whom Hasiak generally referred had likewise exhibited only this one telltale clue. Because totality of the circumstances is the test, undue focus on one circumstance is suspect.
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Yes, its absolutely insane the lengths that the federal government has tortured and stretch the CC to allow it to exercise venue over state matters.
One bizarre case involved the federal government successfully arguing the bootstrap sale of ketchup to a restaurant, which affected commerce. Therefore gave them controlling authority over crimes occuring at the restaurant where the ketchup was located.
No joke, it was a real federal court case
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It looks like the old iron bridge over the Obed River near Wartburg Tenn
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Guns manufactured and sold inside a given state are subject to state laws only, not subject to federal jurisdiction under the much tortured and often ill applied interstate commerce clause.
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Do you REALLY want a Constitutional convention right NOW with all the a$$hats up there???
I think the problem with all the a$$hats up there is that they honestly think we the people will bend over and take whatever they give us.
That (they) in their wildest dreams could not imagine we the people as a whole standing up and with one voice, or in this case 3/4 th majority yelling ENOUGH! Once the CC was seated the full force and gravity of the situation would sink in and they would not dare challenge 75% of the states.
I think the libs would blink. If for nothing more than out of complete fear their jobs and days were numbers, if not over.
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The question that needs to be asked is once the number of states on board passes the threshold. Two-thirds of the state legislatures demand Congress call a national convention. Then we need to get Three-fourths of the state legislatures to ratify.
But...
Why not do it?
It seems that is the direction we are heading in terms of state numbers. At some point we will have three-fourths of the states and I believe we should put an end to it right then and there.
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Approaching space object 'artificial, not asteroid' says NASA
NASA boffins report that an unknown object approaching the Earth from deep space is almost certainly artificial in origin rather than being an asteroid.
Object 2010 KQ was detected by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona earlier this month, and subsequently tracked by NASA's asteroid-watching service, the Near-Earth Object Program headquartered at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
According to the NASA experts:
Observations by astronomer S J Bus, using the NASA-sponsored Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, indicate that 2010 KQ's spectral characteristics do not match any of the known asteroid types, and the object's absolute magnitude (28.9) suggests it is only a few meters in size.
The mysterious artificial object has apparently made a close pass by the Earth, coming in almost to the distance of the Moon's orbit, and is now headed away again into the interplanetary void. The object has used no propulsion during the time NASA has had it under observation. However the spacewatch boffins believe that it must have moved under its own power at some point, given its position and velocity.
"The orbit of this object is very similar to that of the Earth, and one would not expect a [naturally occurring] object to remain in this type of orbit for very long," said Paul Chodas, a brainbox at JPL.
The experts believe that the object must be a spacecraft, or more accurately part of one - sadly not an alien visitor, though. Rather it's likely to be a booster stage from an interplanetary mission of the past, now drifting back in to Earth and out again. The next visit will probably be 2036, at which time there's a small chance that 2010 KQ will crash into the atmosphere and burn up.
Approaching space object 'artificial, not asteroid' says NASA
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ATF agents describe fear of retaliation
ATF agents describe fear of retaliation - CNN.com
Dublin, California (CNN) -- It's a Monday morning, and Vince Cefalu just got into work at his more than $150,000-a-year-job as a special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives."It's 9:30. This is what I affectionately refer to as the cage," Cefalu, 51, said. "I am sitting here with an empty in box and nothing to do. I'll keep you apprised."
CNN gave Cefalu a video camera to document what he does at work. For five days, he recorded himself inside his own office.
Cefalu said he was put in a job with little or nothing to do because he's the victim of retaliation by ATF managers. After spending much of his nearly 24-year ATF career going undercover with motorcycle gangs and white supremacist groups, he now oversees equipment inventory.
"I spent my whole life standing up to bullies," Cefalu told CNN in an interview to air on AC360 Wednesday night. "The bullies right now are government bureaucrats who are abusing their oath and abusing the expectations of the public. I'm not leaving until this is resolved."
Records show ATF supervisors claim he's had performance and discipline issues.
CNN has interviewed dozens of ATF supervisors, agents and employees around the country who said they've been demoted or labeled troublemakers just for filing a complaint.
Later on the same Monday in which he brought a video camera to work, Cefalu was still having a slow day.
"I'm going to get something to eat, drag out the day a little bit, get some interaction with somebody ... Here I am, Safeway sandwich, a little news on, catching up on current affairs. I've had a few phone calls, personal phone calls that I've made, waiting for something to do."
At 3 p.m. that day, he records himself, saying "...watching a little news, surfing the net, reading some e-mails, doing whatever, waiting for something to do. It's good money for not a lot of work, I guess. I'm being facetious, obviously."
He said ATF managers turned against him after he reported in 2005 what he said was an illegal wiretap plan in a racketeering case. Records show ATF disputes his claims of the planned illegal wiretap. But he said that started a series of retaliatory measures that ended up in 2007 with him in a desk job. His only negative evaluation, he said, was the year after he criticized the planned wiretap.
"Had I not exposed some unethical, potentially criminal clearly outside policy conduct and actions by law enforcement that I was working with, none of this would have happened," Cefalu said. "I would still be working in the field."
"I report to where they tell me to report to, and I sit for eight hours a day, and then I go home," he said. "I do nothing."
Cefalu filed a series of grievances and an age-discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but an administrative judge ruled against him. His attorney is appealing that decision.
And over the past several years, he's also sent letters to members of Congress complaining about alleged fraud and mismanagement at the ATF.
"It's almost like being in an abusive relationship, actually. It's almost like domestic violence, really," said Hiram Andrades, a supervisor in ATF's Washington field office. "It's just you think things are going to improve with each director, you think things will get better and improve, but they don't."
Andrades, who has a pending discrimination complaint, claims he was discriminated against because he can't get promoted.
"I can't get a promotion even if my life depended on it. If my life depended on it, I'd be dead by now, OK?" Andrades told CNN. "This type of retaliation isn't good for the agency, it's distracting and it's not good for the American people. We need to make better use of our tax dollars. We need to use it for the mission versus this kind of stuff. This is very distracting and not good for anybody."
ATF has not had a permanent director since Carl Truscott resigned in 2006. The agency is being run by Kenneth Melson, who has been deputy director since 2009.
In an interview with CNN, Melson said he was not permitted to discuss employee cases. But he insisted that he does not tolerate any type of retaliation.
"When I first came into ATF -- when I went around and talked to people at headquarters and around the country -- my specific and very emphatic message was that everyone was to be treated with respect and dignity and there would not be retaliation," Melson said. "I will not stand for retaliation against people who are abiding by our orders and reporting violations of law or regulations."
"Every allegation of retaliation doesn't mean it's true," Melson said. "Every person you talked to who perceives it's retaliation doesn't mean that it's retaliation, because there's been no adjudication of that. They haven't brought it to anybody to try to resolve it. Be careful when you talk to someone about retaliation, because there are many misconceptions and parameters of retaliation -- some of which are misinformed."
Asked about an employee who does virtually nothing all day, he said: "Well, I will certainly look into it and find out why he is not doing anything all day." He added, "I will make sure that he puts in a full day's work, because everybody is going to put in a full day's work at ATF."
Since fiscal 2005, ATF has paid a total of $1.6 million to settle discrimination claims, according to federal government records. For the same time period, the FBI paid out $1.3 million and the DEA paid $331,755.
In addition, records show, ATF has more discrimination complaints filed per employee than the DEA or the FBI.
But Melson said complaints have gone down 40 percent since last year. And ATF officials added that the U.S. Marshals Service and Bureau of Prisons have more complaints per employee.
John Taylor, a former ATF special agent based in Las Vegas, Nevada, said he was the target of retaliation after he wrote an anonymous letter to the agency's inspector-general. In his 2006 letter, he alleged taxpayer money was being wasted on agents' unnecessary trips to Las Vegas.
Taylor told CNN he was the target of an investigation into who wrote the letter.
"They asked me did I write the letter. My response was, 'I don't have to answer' ... they tried to charge me with lying."
He said he left ATF as soon as he was eligible to retire after 20 years, on December 31, 2009.
"I told my wife, I'm not going to live if I stay here," Taylor told CNN. "I was depressed. It was hell for me."
Another agent in the Las Vegas office, who claims he was suspected of writing the anonymous letter, also alleged he was the target of retaliation by managers, according to records obtained by CNN. That agent was fired for failing to pass a firearms test, but later got his job back.
ATF agents tell CNN that managers are taught how to handle discrimination complaints at supervisor meetings.
CNN obtained a statement from a current ATF supervisor who attended such a meeting in March. During that meeting, ATF associate chief counsel Eleanor Loos gave a presentation to supervisors in the Atlanta field division.
According to the statement, Loos stated that "she considers the EEO process as the employees' 'bitching platform' and "employees use this as a means to complain."
"Loos stated in a bragging manner that the EEO process can be dragged on and can take up to three years," the statement said.
Rafiq Ahmad, the ATF supervisor who wrote the statement, added: "This is not the first time that I have heard Eleanor Loos making similar remarks. She has presented these same remarks in presentations in New Supervisor's training."
Melson told CNN he had not seen the statement. "But what I can tell you is that the direction that I have given people is to make sure that we abide by the rules of the agency, that we abide by the process of the EEO, and the ombudsman. And that's why we have the process in place," Melson said.
In a follow-up interview, Scot Thomasson, chief of ATF public affairs, told CNN that the bureau looked into the statements made by Loos.
"What we found is those statements were being taken out of context," Thomasson said. "In addition, they were being characterized in a slanted matter by the person who wrote it."
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Were issued G23's with 3 13rd mags.
I'm not in uniform anymore I work daily with plain clothes agents and officers from many local and state agencies and I've not seen anyone carry 15 rounders for spares.
I only carry one extra 13 round mag anyways in a paddle mag/cuff combo carrier.
If you were a uniform I don't see why it would matter, the only issue I could see would be over seating a 15 rounder in your gun during the stress of a gunfight.
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Lawyer subpoenas red-light traffic cameras to testify against her clients...
Cameras no show in court || OnlineAthens.com
Key witnesses failed to show up for trial Tuesday in Athens-Clarke Municipal Court.Lawyer Regina Quick, defending two clients from charges that they were photographed running red lights, subpoenaed five traffic cameras at the West Broad Street-Alps Road intersection to testify that her clients did indeed barge through on red.
"I didn't observe them as they came in, so I don't believe they'll be appearing," Quick said.
Jim Davis, the assistant county attorney who prosecuted the cases, said Quick should have subpoenaed county officials to produce the cameras if she needed them to make her case.
"It's not proper to serve an inanimate object, such as a camera," Davis said.
Municipal Court Judge Kay Giese found the defendants not guilty because Athens-Clarke County failed to produce any evidence that they are the registered owners of the cars caught on film illegally turning left on red, she said - not because the cameras did not come to court.
But Quick's tactic spoke to what many people loathe about red-light cameras: That they can essentially be ticketed by a machine, not a human being. The cameras snap a picture of a car's license plate when it runs a red light, then a citation is mailed to the car's registered owner.
Usually, the only way for the owner to get out of the ticket is to sign a legal document stating that he or she wasn't driving the car and naming who was. The tickets are not a criminal offense, so they are tried under different rules than most crimes.
Quick questioned a police lieutenant who signed off on the citations mailed to her client and a civilian technician who printed and mailed the images, both of whom said they do not know how the technology works. Therefore, she said, the cameras themselves are the only witnesses.
"It is Orwellian at best," she said.
State law, though, says that the picture is all the county needs to fine someone for running a red light, Davis said.
"The citation speaks for itself," he said. "There is no other evidence required."
Since they were installed, red-light cameras at the Lexington-Cherokee-Gaines School Road and Alps-Broad-Hawthorne Avenue intersections have drastically reduced the number of drivers who run those lights, especially young drivers who "caravan" through the intersections 10 or 12 at a time, Athens-Clarke Manager Alan Reddish said.
The number of tickets issued dropped from 1,791 in 2005 to 667 in 2009 at the Eastside intersection and from 13,222 in 2007 to 4,043 last year at the Westside intersection because drivers now know the cameras are there, Reddish said.
Rear-end collisions are up slightly at those intersections, he said, but sideswipes that often result in more serious injuries are down, he said.
The cameras work so well at deterring drivers from running red lights that they no longer generate revenue for the county government. Money from fines is set aside to operate the cameras, and officials expect them to run a $53,000 deficit next year. Funding left over from past years' fines will be used to plug the hole, Reddish said.
County officials are considering adding red-light cameras to more intersections, he said.
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Jamaica's Bloody Lesson On Guns
FOXNews.com - Jamaica's Bloody Lesson On Guns
Do gun bans really stop criminals from getting guns? Americans need not look no further than the massive gun battle with armed gangs fighting police and soldiers that took place in Kingston, Jamaica today. At least 30 people were killed in the fighting. It is a huge number for a small island nation of fewer than 3 million people, but unfortunately murder is so common in Jamaica that these murders won't even be noticed in the annual crime numbers.
With Chicago's Mayor Daley again claiming that a gun ban is necessary to keep Chicagoans safe, Jamaica and other countries with gun bans might teach Americans a lesson.
Everyone wants to keep guns away from criminals, but the question is: who is most likely to obey the law? In the case of a ban, every instance we have data for shows that when a ban has been imposed, murder rates rise. In America, people are all to familiar with the increased murder rates in Chicago and Washington, D.C.. But supporters blame those gun control failures on the ease of getting guns in the rest of the country. Yet, even in island nations such as Ireland, the U.K., and Jamaica -- all of which have imposed bans -- their easily defendable borders and lack of obvious neighbors haven't stopped drug gangs from getting either drugs or the guns that they use to protect their valuable product.
Jamaica wasn't always the extremely violent country that it is today (see the figure here). Jamaica experienced large increases in murder rates since enacting a handgun bans in 1974. Since the gun ban, Jamaica’s murder rate has soared to become one of the highest in the world, currently at least double that of other Caribbean countries. Jamaica’s murder rate hasn’t sunk below 10 murders per 100,000 people since the gun ban went into effect.
Even before the recent rampage, Jamaica's murder rate was about six times higher than before the ban went into effect. Indeed, Jamaica's current murder rate is so high -- at about 60 per hundred thousand people -- that 30 additional deaths in one day will barely be noticeable: 30 deaths will only increase the murder rate from about 60 to 61.
Just as Mexico's President Calderon showed last week, it is always easy for politicians to blame crime on guns. The crime data in Jamaica shows the same thing as the crime data in Chicago and Washington have shown. It is the law-abiding, good citizens, not the criminals, who are disarmed by gun bans.
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American Jobbery Act
Dissecting this week's stimulus bill.
President Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill are publicly fretting about the dangers of spending and debt, which can mean only one thing: Another big spending "stimulus" bill is in the works. And sure enough, the House plans to vote this week on $190 billion in new spending, $134 billion of which it won't even pretend to pay for.Sander Levin, the new Ways and Means Chairman, calls this exercise the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act. Mr. Levin has waited 28 years to ascend to this throne and this is the best he can do? "Jobs" were also the justification in February 2009 for the $862 billion stimulus that has managed to hold the jobless rate down to a mere 9.9%. Maybe Mr. Levin's spending can hold it down to even greater heights.
The nearby table gives a flavor of what's in this grab bag of political payoffs, corporate welfare and transfer payments. There's $24 billion to help states pay the exploding tab for Medicaid, the same program that ObamaCare expands by some 16 million new recipients. The bill also offers $1 billion for summer jobs for teens, whose jobless rate is 25.4%. Congress could do far more to create teen jobs if it merely suspended last year's minimum wage increase to $7.25 an hour, which priced millions of young workers out of the labor market. But that would be too rational.
The biggest item is $65 billion to prevent a 21% cut in Medicare physician reimbursements. Democrats promised this to the American Medical Association in return for its ObamaCare support, but they left the $65 billion out of the health-care law to make it look less expensive. Now they're pushing it through under separate cover when they assume the press corps won't notice.
The $47 billion to extend unemployment insurance to nearly two full years will bring the total spent on this program to $137 billion during this recession—five times more than in either of the prior two recessions. That's nearly as much as the federal corporate income raised in 2009.
The sages in Congress continue to claim that these payments for not working will lead to more work. Representative Jim McDermott recently declared on the House floor that jobless payments are "one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus" because "every unemployment dollar spent returns $1.64 of economic benefits." So let's lay off everybody, pay them for not working, and watch the economy really boom. Where do they teach this stuff?
This bill is also one of the most expensive corporate welfare giveaways in recent years with subsidies for municipal bond traders, cotton farmers, yarn producers, sheep growers, Hawaiian sugar cane cooperatives, motor sports businesses, renewable energy firms, the steel lobby, and so on. Any industry that doesn't get a tax credit or other handout in this bill should fire its lobbyist.
All of this is "paid for," in the Beltway lingo, with a net tax increase on business of about $40 billion and at least $134 billion of new debt. There's a new 24 cent a barrel tax on oil companies, which would flow to consumers in higher gas prices, because Congress says the industry's profits are excessive.
U.S. multinational companies would pay a higher tax rate on their overseas income, which will not help them create more jobs here. The better way to discourage job outsourcing is to cut the corporate income tax rate, but Mr. Levin and his union allies will have none of that.
Managers of private equity and venture capital firms that provide the start-up and expansion funding to businesses would see their tax rate rise to as high as 35% from 15% today—a huge tax increase when businesses are starved for capital. And small, often family-owned Subchapter S companies that provide professional services would be required to subject more of their profits to the self-employment tax. These firms already pay up to 35% tax on these profits, so under the Democratic plan their tax rate could reach 50%.
Perhaps you're wondering what happened to the "pay as you go" budget rules that Mr. Obama announced to great media fanfare as recently as February. Democrats now say "paygo" doesn't apply because this spending qualifies as an "emergency." But while the new spending isn't paid for, Democrats are insisting that the bill's extension of the R&D tax credit and small business depreciation allowance must be offset by the tax increases.
Oh, and by the way, the President is unveiling a new line-item veto proposal this week to "rein in wasteful spending and hold Congress accountable," as Senator John Kerry put it yesterday in a press release. If any of them were remotely serious, they'd start by line-item vetoing this entire bill.
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Hmmm. maybe I should have posted this in the National Politics and Legislation forum.
Sorry mods!
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Double-dip fears over worldwide credit stress
The global credit system is flashing the most serious warning signals in almost a year on triple fears of a Spanish banking crisis, escalating political risk in Asia, and a second leg to the US housing slump.
Double-dip fears over worldwide credit stress
The global credit system is flashing the most serious warning signals in almost a year on triple fears of a Spanish banking crisis, escalating political risk in Asia, and a second leg to the US housing slump.
Double-dip fears over worldwide credit stress - Telegraph
Flight to safety drove yields on 10-year German Bunds to 2.56pc, below the levels touched in the depths of the Great Depression. The spreads over peripheral European debt rose sharply again, jumping to 137 basis points for Italy, 157 for Spain and 220 for Ireland.The strains in Europe's sovereign debt markets are nearing levels that forced EU leaders to launch their "shock and awe" rescue package. "If a $1 trillion (£700bn) bail-out did not finally turn sentiment, I struggle to see what can," said Tim Ash, an economist at RBS.
Dollar Libor rates gauging stress within the interbank lending market have jumped to a 10-month high of 0.5363pc, with credit contagion spreading to every area. The iTraxx Senior financials index – banks' "fear gauge" – rose 20 basis points on Tuesday to 184. "It turns out we weren't seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after all, but a train with a big light on it coming towards us of double-dip," said Dr Suki Mann, at Societe Generale.
While the Libor rate is still far below peaks reached during the Lehman crisis, the pattern has ominous echoes of credit market strains before the two big "pulses" of the credit crisis in August 2007 and September 2008. In each case a breakdown of trust in the interbank market was a harbinger of violent moves in equities and the real economy weeks later.
RBS's credit team said Libor strains were worse than they looked since most banks in Europe were paying much higher spreads, especially in Spain. The "implied" forward spreads were nearer 1.1pc.
The damage has spilt over to corporate bonds, effectively shutting the market for new issues. May will be the worst single month for debt issues since December 1999, with seven deals being cancelled in recent days. Volume has collapsed to $47bn from $183bn in April, according to Bloomberg.
Mr Ash said North Korea's decision to cut all ties with the South and abrogate its non-aggression pact – coming days after Thailand sent tanks into Bangkok to crush the Red Shirts – has played into the chemistry of angst gripping markets, adding it was a reminder that Asia has "political/social stress points". This risk was overlooked during the honeymoon phase of emerging markets when investors were intoxicated by the China story.
Fears that America may slip back into a double-dip recession are returning. Larry Summers, the White House economic tsar, has called for a second stimulus package to keep the recovery on track, warning that the US economy is still in a "very deep valley".
The S&P Case-Shiller index of home prices is declining again as incentives for homebuyers expire and the slow-burn effect of rising delinquencies exacts its toll. Prices fell 3.2pc in the first quarter of this year. "There are signs of some renewed weakening in home prices", said David Blitzer from S&P.
The epicentre of the credit crisis is moving to Spain where the seizure by the central bank of CajaSur over the weekend has torn away the veil on credit damage from Spain's property crash.
Bank stocks fell 6pc in Madrid in early trading on Tuesday on fears that funding will dry up for the cajas – or the savings banks – setting off a broader credit crunch. The cajas hold the lion's share of loans to property companies and developers, estimated at €445bn (£380bn) or 45pc of GDP by Goldman Sachs.
Spanish construction reached 17pc of GDP at the height of the bubble as real interest rates of minus 2pc set by the European Central Bank for German needs played havoc with the Spanish economy. This was almost double the level in the US during the sub-prime booms. The result is an overhang of unsold Spanish properties equal to four years' demand.
Markets have been rattled by reports in the German media that the Greek rescue deal contains two secret clauses. The package will be "immediately and irrevocably cancelled" if it is found to breach the EU Treaty's "no bail-out" clause, either in a ruling by the European court or the constitutional courts of any eurozone state. While such an event is unlikely, it is not impossible. There are two cases already pending at Germany's top court in Karlsruhe, perhaps Europe's most "eurosceptic" tribunal.
The second clause said that if any country finds it cannot raise funding for the rescue at interest rates below the 5pc charge agreed for Greece, it may opt out of the bail-out. BNP Paribas said this would escalate quickly into a systemic crisis if Spain were in such a position, because the other countries cannot carry an ever-rising burden. The bank warned the euro project itself may start to disintegrate rapidly if these rescue provisions are ever seriously put to the test.
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Even Reuters admits fears of a double-dip recession are piling up!
TOPWRAP 1-Japan voices Europe debt concerns as euro, stocks fall | Reuters
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It was in the news a few months back that Sen. Lautenberg had added or was trying to add an amendment to some bill that eventually passed and was signed by Bambi for all assault conviction to fall under the scope of his "Lautenberg Amendment".
Try Gun Rights Examiner or another such web site.
I'm almost positive thats where I saw it.
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When Bills and his father showed up in court, even though blood tests showed he was clean, the prosecutor told him he'd have to wait at least four months for the charges to be dropped -- unless he pleaded guilty to something else.
He pleaded guilty to speeding -- even though the officer never even charged him with that offense.
WTH!??!?!?
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Nashville DUI Officers Warned to Arrest More People - Or Else
Metro police say their specialized DUI units are finding fewer drunk drivers to arrest.But if you think they're celebrating that drivers are finally getting the message, think again.
In fact, a NewsChannel 5 investigation discovered supervisors are now warning some officers that if they don't find more people to arrest, they could be in trouble themselves.
Police insist that's not a quota, but NewsChannel 5 Investigates found an innocent man who isn't convinced.
Our cameras were there as 18-year-old Martin Bills went to court to get his good name back.
It's a name that was taken when a Metro police officer arrested him back in April on DUI charges. His employer suspended him, and the U.S. Navy told him his plans to enlist would have to wait.
"It put my life on hold for about three weeks now," Bills said. "I can't go to work. I can't make money."
Bills was stopped on Briley Parkway by an officer assigned to a DUI task force that makes repeated traffic stops, hoping to catch drivers who've been drinking.
"He automatically right off the bat asked me had I been drinking, had I been smoking," the young man recalled. "I said no. He continued to ask me and ask me."
What followed was the kind of field sobriety tests we've all seen on TV -- tests that the officer claimed Bills flunked.
"He said my eye was twitching and my leg was shaking -- that's why he took me in. I mean, I can't help that I'm nervous that I'm getting pulled over," Bills said.
The officer booked him on suspicion of being under the influence of marijuana.
Read arrest affidavit here
But before being taken to the Metro Jail, Bills agreed to submit to a blood test.
The tests all came back negative.
View results of blood test taken by Martin Bills
"It showed on my tests that I have not been using drugs at all," he noted. "I'm getting arrested for being sober and driving. That's it."
While we'll never know what the officer was really thinking, critics inside the police department point to a pressure on officers to generate numbers -- numbers that police brass can use to brag to the public about all the drunk drivers they've taken off the roads.
A short time before he resigned, former Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas declared in a news conference, "I'm going to admit for the first time on television there is a quota. The quota is we want to get every drunk driver."
Serpas always insisted there were no arrest quotas.
But NewsChannel 5 Investigates obtained several recent memos in which a DUI lieutenant warned officers that they could face disciplinary action if they did not start arresting more people.
"Self-motivated officers ... should more often than not be able to arrest 2 DUI offenders each 8.5 hour shift," one memo read.
That's "not a quota," the memo claimed, "but simply a benchmark."
But then it added, "If improvement does not take place, additional corrective action will occur."
Read the memos from Lt. Kenneth Walburn
NewsChannel 5 Investigates had asked Serpas, "You don't see that as a quota?"
"No," the chief answered. "What the lieutenant is saying is that we have an expectation that the only thing you do all day is find DUI offenders and obviously there is some expectation that we should be able to see so many of these on average."
Veteran Nashville lawyer Gary Blackburn disagreed.
"Oh, it's plainly a quota," he said. Blackburn said that setting an expectation of the number of arrests per shift clearly puts pressure on officers every single night.
"If you're trying to average two per night and you are in the last hour of your shift and you have none or you have one, then what is your thought process going to be? Because if you don't make the second one that night, do you have to make three the next?"
Add to that, a financial incentive.
On March 31st, patrol officers who get overtime to chase DUIs were told that the lieutenant "will begin looking at individual officer performance.... Those officers who consistently perform at high standards will be given preference" for the overtime.
Read memo about preferences for DUI overtime
Three days later, one of those officers arrested Martin Bills.
Blackburn said such measures make it more likely that officers will arrest people whom they would otherwise let go.
"It's wrong to pressure hard-working, stressed-out officers to make decisions based not on whether they genuinely perceive the motorist as being intoxicated, but on whether they have to meet another quota for that night," he added.
"The result will be inevitably that some innocent persons are going to be affected by this."
One officer who received a warning was Wallace Taylor, who's been repeatedly honored as one of the city's top DUI officers.
But police said that they just don't buy that there are fewer drunk drivers. They said other officers are able to meet the "job performance standard," so every officer should.
Experts added that defense lawyers can use such mandates to attack the credibility of DUI officers in court by suggesting they're just trying to save their own jobs.
Martin Bills' father, Everett, said, "It makes me take another look at the way they do business."
When Bills and his father showed up in court, even though blood tests showed he was clean, the prosecutor told him he'd have to wait at least four months for the charges to be dropped -- unless he pleaded guilty to something else.
He pleaded guilty to speeding -- even though the officer never even charged him with that offense.
"It's gotten out of hand now," Martin Bills said. "So it's just time to end it all now and move on with my life."
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Feels nice, having paid your state poll tax... to now have gubermint permission to exercise a constitutional right.
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Vandy PD carries G22's
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This slight rise in retail sales, like unemployment needs to be put into perspective to be understood.
Think of it in terms of just how far total retail sales have fallen since the recession began.
Now add back 1.6% to that number.
While any good news is good, in the grand scheme of it all its just a drop in the bucket. But the problem is, the bucket still has some serious holes that need patching.
Like the unemployment picture, people are happy that the rate of layoffs are slowing. What many people don't get but several economist believe...is that they are slowing because, well there just isn't anyone left to lay off. Companies have cut payroll to the bone and there is few if any non-critical workers left to lay off. Any more of an increase in unemployment and you will begin to truly cut into the heart of the workforce. Not just Construction Workers, unskilled labor and such...
But I guess as far as the 1.6% bump in retail sales.
Any port in a storm...
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It came from 3 gun competitions.
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just driving through Edgehill makes me nervous.
Awe heck son, Edgehill is kindergarden stuff. Go visit the Nations, Bordeaux or the areas between Hadley and Buena Vista parks.
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I think the evidence that the worst mass shootings always take place in these so called gun free or crime free zones should be evidence enough to support the argument that there is a problem with the idea that prohibiting gun possession by law abiding people will stop or deter crime.
In every case the gunman was not the lest bit deterred by any posted prohibition against carry. Yet still went on to commit mass murder.
You don't see these types of attacks at gun shows or even large public gathering where the law allows the public to carry concealed or open. And there is a reason for it.
Its been established by studies conducted on convicted criminals that they will weigh the possibility of their victim being armed against any planned attack.
I think the same holds true with school shootings. None of these folks were so crazy they would not of be found fit for trial because they clearly make well thought out, calculated plans to conduct their attacks.
Harris and Klebold planned the Columbine attack for months as did Cho including diary entries and photographic evidence of their plans.
They were not crazy. They knew exactly what they were doing.
Just like someone intending on committing suicide by cop. They know exactly what they are doing.
Stop of a man in a hoodie for carrying a weapon lacked reasonable suspicion
in 2A Legislation and Politics
Posted
How this case even made it to the 8th Circuit defies all logic...
the whole thing was based upon nothing more than a hunch or a mere suspicion, based not upon fact but upon experience.
WTF!??!
Is there a new exemption to the search warrant rule?
The "gut feeling exemption"?