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Stormtrooper

Former narcotics officer admits terrorizing families 'over a bag of pot'

Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 05:15 UTC
Barry Cooper
© Huffpost
Barry Cooper, Texas narcotics officer
A former Texas narcotics officer recently sat down with HuffPost Live to explain why he turned against the drug war.

"A couple of times I raided a home and there were two kids in the home, scared, we terrorized the family, and it's for a bag of pot," Barry Cooper said Tuesday. "Searching the house, I noticed the kids had straight 'A' report cards, the parent's checkbook was balanced, and I realized that something was amiss, something was really bad."

"I put it together years later, after I started smoking pot," he confessed. "You know, a lot of people report that the use of that medication helps a person self-reflect. And, wow, the veil came off and then I started doing the real research for myself instead of believing the propaganda. And I cried for a year after I found out the truth and what I had been involved in."
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Cow

Extremely rare triplet cows born in England to stunned farmer

Trudi Bird
New York Daily News
Mon, 12 Aug 2013 14:29 UTC
Triple Cow Birth_1
© BBC
Jon Appleby joked that cracking open a triple-yolk egg last week must have been a sign of the awesome birth.
A farmer was stunned after one of his cows gave birth to triplets at an incredible odds of 700,000 to 1.

Despite working on the farm his entire life, Jon Appleby, from Wirral in the northwest England, had never heard of three calves being born at the same time from the same mother.

That was until one of his 74 cows at Greenhouse Farm, "number 901," did exactly that, giving birth to three male calves, the Daily Mail reports.
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Arrow Up

Rape victims' mistreatment causes overhaul of Virginia police department policy

Katie McDonough
Salon
Mon, 12 Aug 2013 12:00 UTC
Image
© Lisa Norwood via Flickr Creative Commons
A 22-year-old woman's harassment at the hands of Virginia police prompted a total overhaul of official policy

After repeat harassment and intimidation from police in Norfolk, Va., a 22-year-old sexual assault survivor submitted a written statement detailing how, after reporting her assault, investigators doubted her story multiple times and told her, "If we find out that you're lying, this will be a felony charge."

According to a report from the Virginia Pilot, in addition to verbal harassment that became so extreme that the unnamed victim was compelled to walk out of her interview with investigators, police officials failed to release a composite sketch of the woman's assailant, Roy Ruiz Loredo, a serial rapist who, after leaving Norfolk, went on to allegedly assault three other women in Virginia Beach.

The woman's mistreatment during the investigation prompted the department to update its sexual assault policy which, prior to the changes, classified all rape cases as "unfounded" as a default and had no written provision in place to ensure victims were taken to the hospital and examined following an assault.

As part of the changes, the department will now allow rape crisis advocates to sit in on interviews with victims, and mandate detectives in the Special Crimes Division undergo training about post-traumatic stress disorder related to sexual assault and enroll in an online education program from a women's advocacy group.

Basically, they will now be required to do their jobs the way they should have been doing them from the very start.
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Black Cat 2

Police savagely beat Galveston man and force his head underwater

Harvey Rice
Houston Chronicle
Tue, 13 Aug 2013 12:02 UTC
Stop Police Brutality
© Unknown
A lawsuit filed by a Texas City man accuses Galveston police of savagely beating him and forcing his head underwater as he lay in the surf.

The federal lawsuit filed Monday by Reginald Deon Davis, 34, against the city of Galveston and officers Archie Chapman Jr. and Jose H. Santos Jr. asks for damages to be determined by a jury. The lawsuit accuses the city of failing to properly train its officers. The incident was captured by a camera mounted on a patrol car.

Police Chief Henry Porretto said Davis had been convicted on two previous drug charges and was facing a possible third strike. He said Davis grabbed something from the seat of the car and put it in his pocket before fleeing. An internal police investigation completed before Davis filed a complaint determined that officers used necessary force, Porretto said.

The lawsuit alleges that on March 19 Davis was asleep in his car on the seawall, illegal in Galveston without a camping permit. Santos allegedly awakened Davis at 1:45 a.m. and asked him to place his hands on the hood of the police car. Davis ran onto the beach, was tased and tackled as he staggered to his feet, according to the lawsuit. Davis alleges that Santos, Chapman and three other officers beat him as he lay in the surf and forced his head under water.

Comment: Why have police in America turned into such ruthless thugs?

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Arrow Down

More than 700 roosters rescued from illegal cockfighting breeding operation in N.O. east

Claire Galofaro
The Advocate
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 20:28 UTC
Fighting Roosters
© John McCusker
Hollie Gomill, Edward Bosch and Kerry Backsen of the Louisiana SPCA remove two to hundreds of fighting roosters from a warehouse in New Orleans East Wednesday, August 14, 2013.
A woman called the Louisiana SPCA this weekend, declined to give her name and reported some 50 cockfighting roosters in a neighbor's back lawn. But when investigators arrived at the home Wednesday morning, they found much more than they bargained for.

For hours, all day, they rescued more than 700 birds in what the organization describes at the most sprawling and sophisticated illegal breeding operation they've encountered in over a century.

They discovered a warehouse full of pens used to cage the birds next to the home in the 14000 block of Chef Menteur Highway. In the home's backyard, they found another 150 or so makeshift cages, fashioned from 55-gallon drums, filled with roosters. Hundreds more ran free, hiding from rescuers in the surrounding mud and banana trees.

But the biggest, most beautiful birds, worth thousands on the black market, were kept in spacious corrals in a climate-controlled shed, with heaters and egg incubators, mating charts and an automated watering system.

Each rooster was meticulously bred for the ancient blood sport, which pits roosters with knives strapped to their legs against each other in a fight to the death.

The homeowner, 47-year-old Trinh Tran, was booked Wednesday afternoon on cockfighting and animal cruelty charges.
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Stormtrooper

Corrupt cops caught on dash cam: DAMMIT I was still recording!

Susan Duclos
Before it's News
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 19:55 UTC
Some Oregon's Malheur County Sheriff's deputies sit on the rodeo board for the Jordan Valley Big Loop Rodeo, and two cops, after an illegal traffic stop, discuss why they stopped the victim... among other things.

Quotes from the dash camera footage include;

"I didn't want to stop the man."

"God, we're going to get sued."

'We're going to be in a world of hurt."

It's all because of that rodeo board."

"DAMMIT, I was still recording."

I am guessing at that point they realized they should keep their mouths shut!

Watch and listen below:
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Eye 1

Smartphone pictures pose privacy risks


Youtube
Tue, 09 Nov 2010 19:36 UTC
Pictures you've e-mailed or uploaded from your smartphone could leak information that can threaten your safety or that of your children.
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Crusader

Freed Palestinian prisoners return home from Israel


RIA Novosti
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 17:03 UTC
Image
© REUTERS/ Suhaib Salem
A freed Palestinian prisoner gestures upon his arrival near Erez crossing, between Israel and northern Gaza Strip, August 14, 2013
Twenty-six Palestinian prisoners who were pardoned by the Israeli government earlier in the week have returned home, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday.

According to the agency, several buses left the Ayalon prison in central Israel late on Tuesday night carrying inmates, most of whom had been jailed for attacks on Israeli citizens.

Eleven of the 26 released prisoners were met in Ramallah, in the West Bank, by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, while 15 others were greeted by crowds in the Gaza Strip.

The long-term prisoners made up the first group of 104 people whom Israeli authorities pledged to release as an act of good will in regard to the Palestinian authorities.
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Road Cone

New Zealand woman drives for hours sending texts while asleep at the wheel


The Telegraph, UK
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 12:13 UTC
A New Zealand woman drove for hundreds of kilometres while asleep at the wheel, sending texts from her mobile phone along the way, police said.

Image
© Alamy
Police said they received an emergency call just after midnight Wednesday from a friend concerned the woman had gone out in her car after taking sleeping medication.

Told that the woman had been sleep-driving 10 months previously and had a fondness for the beach, police ordered patrol cars to keep a lookout for her silver hatchback and began tracking her via her mobile phone.

They said data showed the phone was on and she was sending texts as she drove from her Hamilton home to the beachside town of Mount Maunganui via Auckland, a distance of almost 300 kilometres (190 miles).
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Bad Guys

Judge refuses to dismiss suit against Feds who arrested former Marine for his controversial Facebook posts

Techdirt
The Raw Story
Tue, 13 Aug 2013 10:34 UTC
Marine Brandon Raub
© n/a
Marine Brandon Raub
Almost exactly a year ago, former Marine Brandon Raub was taken from his home by federal agents and involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward, all because of some controversial postings to his Facebook account, including some 9/11 conspiracy-related articles and violent song lyrics.

On August 16, 2012, Raub was visited by local police, FBI agents and Secret Service personnel who questioned him about his Facebook posts. Raub was cooperative and discussed his activity with the officers, despite their not having a warrant. At some point, one of the agents made a call to Michael Campbell, a psychotherapist retained by the county who decided, despite having never met or observed Raub, that the former Marine was "potentially dangerous" and should be detained.

At that point, the collected officers cuffed Raub and took him to the local jail before having him committed to the mental hospital. Government officials later claimed Raub wasn't arrested, but the video taken of his "not being arrested" looks for all the world to the un-government-trained eye like an arrest.
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