Law and Order 2 - Page 97 - Politics and Economics

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/g...7#.UHl5f8XA-cF

So uh, I get that child abuse (pretty awful almost killed the kid I think) is pretty heinous but 99 year sentence? WTF?

10-13-2012 , 10:31 AM

#2402

DblBarrelJ

2+2 Resident Enforcer

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 13,857

That's an emotional case.

It's also important to remember judges don't sentence with the standard expectation that you'll actually do the amount of prison time they sentence you to, they sentence typically by looking at the % of a sentence the average offender is serving, then do the math to get them to where they want you to be as far as actual sentence.

10-13-2012 , 10:50 AM

#2403

rjoefish

Got Out the Vote

Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 31,086

It's a minimum of 30 years according to the article and the prosecutor was pushing for life.

10-13-2012 , 10:56 AM

#2404

DblBarrelJ

2+2 Resident Enforcer

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 13,857

I'm happy with either 30 or life in that situation, honestly.

Super gluing a toddlers hands to the wall and beating her into a coma (IIRC, saw it a couple days ago on the evening news) is heinous.

And is 30 the minimum sentence or the minimum "must serve" time?

ETA: Disregard. I'd have to review the actual sentencing guidelines but I'm guessing its ~1/3, which is where the 99 years comes into play.

The judge actually wanted her to Serve 30 years, and to do so would require a sentence of 99 yrs.

10-13-2012 , 10:59 AM

#2405

rjoefish

Got Out the Vote

Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 31,086

Not sure, this is what it says:

Quote:

Price said Escalona would be eligible to apply for parole in 30 years.

10-13-2012 , 11:11 AM

#2406

JayTeeMe

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 29,411

Quote:

Originally Posted by galmost

Maybe more of this needs to happen imo.
Photos of dead police officer posted outside Tennessee farm.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...220517988.html

What a ****ing psycho

10-16-2012 , 02:39 AM

#2407

LirvA

banned

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 43,574

Here's some more cop bull****. Cops arrest you and publish (or sell?) your mugshot and name. Person posts photo of undercover narc on facebook, gets charged with felony retaliation.

Quote:

Texas woman charged with felony for posting police officer’s photo on Facebook

When a Texas woman discovered the true identity of a local undercover cop, she outted the officer by posting a photograph of the man on Facebook. Now she’s awaiting trial for a felony charge after authorities arrested her on a count of retaliation.

Melissa Walthall, 30, tells police in Mesquite, Texas that she first saw a photograph of a man revealed to be an undercover officer after a friend of hers drafted up a poster he intended on plastering around town. She acquired a copy of the image, uploaded it to her Facebook and captioned it with the warning: "Undercover Mesquite Narcotics . . . Anyone know this bitch?”

A Facebook friend of Walthall’s became suspicious of the post and alerted the authorities, who in turn opened up an investigation into the woman to determine how she may have become familiar with the true identity of the undercover Narc. Before long, police became aware of another friend of Walthall, 34-year-old George Pickens, who was able to clue them in a bit further.

According to Pickens, he and his brother Bobby Stedham, 26, found a Facebook page for the police officer and used a photo from the account to make posters that they intended to display “like garage sale signs,” an affidavit acquired by ABC News suggests.

As it turns out, the officer had testified only weeks earlier in a drug case that targeted Pickens and now the two brothers were determined to blow the cop’s cover. For helping out by hoping to ID him on Facebook, however, Walthall was picked up by the police and charged with retaliation, a felony, because investigators had determined that her post constituted a “viable threat to that officer’s safety,”

In Texas, the state penal code mandates that a person is guilty of retaliation after committing an offense that “intentionally or knowingly harms or threatens to harm another by an unlawful act.” Pixiq.com reporter Carlos Miller notes, however, that it might pose a challenge in a court of law if and when the cop in question admits that the photo was made available to anyone online, essentially leaving Walthall with being guilty of nothing more than distributing something from the public domain.

Stedham has also been hit with retaliation charges, and his brother is being brought to trial for federal drugs and weapons charges because an investigation of his home turned up a sawed-off shotgun and 28 grams of methamphetamines.

Mitch Landry, the deputy executive director of the Texas Municipal Police Association in Austin, tells CBS News, “Our best advice is — if you don’t want that information out there, don’t have those accounts.”

Now another warning could be in order for civilians, though, for apparently uploading an unauthorized photo on Facebook can cause more than just copyright infringement issues. In Walthall’s case, she stands to serve years behind bars if found guilty.

Texas Municipal Police Association Executive Director Kevin Lawrence adds to ABC that any publishing of private information can have drastic consequences for undercover officers.

"It's a very dangerous situation," Lawrence says. "If you're trying to infiltrate a cartel, a drug ring, a gang, one of the keys is people have to believe you're not an officer. Anything that hints at tying you to law enforcement is very dangerous.”

https://rt.com/usa/news/texas-felony...-facebook-508/

I've also heard stories about cops leaking names of their informants with absoultely no repercussions.

Seriously, **** cops.

10-16-2012 , 06:51 AM

#2408

DblBarrelJ

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Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 13,857

Nevermind.

10-16-2012 , 07:22 AM

#2409

DblBarrelJ

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Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 13,857

LirvA, you are incorrect.

Are you at all interested in how those "Busted!" Magazine's are produced, through what mechanisms, and who's profiting?

As for the rest of the story, it's a complicated mix of First Amendment freedoms vs intentionally putting someone's life in imminent danger because you are pissed at them, and we've been around and around enough here that I know already you either won't admit that they intentionally endangered his life or you'll say he deserved to have his life put in danger, so we'll skip that and go with the Mugshot magazines in the gas stations, so at least you'll learn something new.

10-16-2012 , 07:28 AM

#2410

champstark

aka starkwired

Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 14,838

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20.../?ref=nyregion

Quote:

The Police Department and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office have begun separate investigations into allegations of police brutality after reviewing video that shows two officers repeatedly striking a young man inside a Jewish community center in Brooklyn, officials said on Monday.

Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, said Internal Affairs Bureau investigators also referred the case to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent agency that investigates allegations of abuse of authority by the police. One of the officers, Luis A. Vega, has been placed on modified duty, he said.

The video, posted online on Sunday night by CrownHeights.info, shows Officer Vega punching the head and body of Ehud Halevy, 21, and another officer from the 71st Precinct, Yelena Bruzzese, battering Mr. Halevy with a baton for more than two minutes last week as he tries to fend off the blows.

According to a criminal complaint, the officers said Mr. Halevy had attacked them, causing one to suffer a sprained wrist, during an encounter on Oct. 8 in the Alternative Learning Institute for Young Adults on East New York Avenue in Crown Heights. Mr. Halevy was charged with a felony count of assault on police officers.

But the seven-minute video seems to contradict the officers’ account: It does not show Mr. Halevy striking either officer, though he does pull away from Officer Vega, using an arm to push off the officer and break free. The video was taken by a surveillance camera in the center’s lounge.

Rabbi Moishe Feiglin, a director at the youth outreach center, said he was disturbed by the video and the way the officers had treated Mr. Halevy. The rabbi said Mr. Halevy participated in the center’s program of educational, spiritual and counseling services for youths who are considered “at risk” in Crown Heights.

“It was very painful to see one of our members being treated like that,” Rabbi Feiglin said. “It seemed like a senseless beating and we felt compassion for this young guy being beaten like that. We all need to have more compassion.”

According to the criminal complaint, Officers Vega and Bruzzese responded to a 911 call of a dispute inside the outreach center about 5 a.m. The call was made by Trappler Zalman, a center volunteer, who performs security checks in the building. Mr. Zalman told the officers that he found Mr. Halevy “sleeping naked” on a couch inside the lounge. Mr. Zalman ordered him to get dressed and leave, telling him he did not have permission to be there. Mr. Halevy refused and argued that he had a right to be there, the complaint states.

In fact, Rabbi Feiglin said in a telephone interview on Monday, Mr. Halevy had permission to stay overnight at the center. He needed “a place to crash for a short period,” the rabbi said. Rabbi Feiglin added that it was unclear what had prompted Mr. Zalman to call the police, since Mr. Halevy had been sleeping in the lounge for about a month.

10-16-2012 , 06:44 PM

#2411

will1530

self-banned

Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 5,773

Quote:

Originally Posted by DblBarrelJ

It's not a first amendment issue, and the cop put himself in danger by being a dumbass. All she did was disseminate information the ******ed cop made available to the public.

10-16-2012 , 06:50 PM

#2412

DblBarrelJ

2+2 Resident Enforcer

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 13,857

Quote:

Originally Posted by will1530

It's not a first amendment issue, and the cop put himself in danger by being a dumbass. All she did was disseminate information the ******ed cop made available to the public.

It depends on the context.

If he has an open Facebook page, has his occupation listed as "Police Officer" with his real name, etc you'd have a point.

If the only way she found out he was a cop was through him testifying in court, then no.

10-16-2012 , 08:08 PM

#2413

LirvA

banned

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 43,574

Quote:

Originally Posted by DblBarrelJ

The government needlessly puts citizens lives at risk every day through drug prohibition. Drugs are illegal so people have to buy them from dangerous people, and if cops catch them they'll put them in jail with even more dangerous people.

Undercover narcs deserve to be outted, 100%. If their lives are put in danger because of it, welp, thems the breaks. Citizens shouldn't be the only victims of the drug war.

10-16-2012 , 08:11 PM

#2414

DblBarrelJ

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Ok, well as long as you agree that she intentionally put this guys life at risk there's really nothing to argue.

10-16-2012 , 08:15 PM

#2415

LirvA

banned

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 43,574

That's debatable.

That he should have been outted is 100% not debatable imo.

10-16-2012 , 08:24 PM

#2416

DblBarrelJ

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Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 13,857

It's not "debatable". It takes a brain dead ****** without question to state that they were unaware they were placing this man at risk of death by outing him.

I see no reason to believe she's a braindead moron.

It also speaks to a larger problem, in that this argument is pretty much exclusive to drug guys.

You really can't honestly make this argument about a plainclothed cop who investigates corporate crime, or even prostitution stings.

I'm not supporting this because its a way of "punishing" this woman for ****ing up their investigation, I'm supporting this because its the truth.

And when drug offenders become as "non-violent" as they claim to be, then real change can probably be made to ending the WoD.

Whether he "deserved" to be outted is irrelevant. It becomes relevant when you can no longer reasonably say his life was endangered.

Then you also have the added benefit of claiming this is civil disobedience.

10-16-2012 , 11:23 PM

#2417

LirvA

banned

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 43,574

Quote:

Originally Posted by DblBarrelJ

You really can't honestly make this argument about a plainclothed cop who investigates corporate crime, or even prostitution stings.

lol at the government investigating corporate crime.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DblBarrelJ

And when drug offenders become as "non-violent" as they claim to be, then real change can probably be made to ending the WoD.

lol. A guy goes up to another guy and buys marijuana from him. A cop busts them, slams them to the ground if they resist arrest, and locks them in a cage. Who's the violent ones again? Oh right, it's the cops.

10-17-2012 , 12:19 AM

#2418

Trolly McTrollson

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Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 37,777

If you're dumb enough to have facebook pics of yourself online while working as an undercover cop, I got zero sympathy for ya. That's ****ing OPSEC 101.

10-17-2012 , 06:22 AM

#2419

DblBarrelJ

2+2 Resident Enforcer

Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 13,857

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trolly McTrollson

If you're dumb enough to have facebook pics of yourself online while working as an undercover cop, I got zero sympathy for ya. That's ****ing OPSEC 101.

Again, like I said to Riverman, it depends on the context.

If he's got pics of himself in a uniform etc, using his real name then sure, it's his fault. I'm very skeptical that happened, mostly as they all scour Facebook and this guy would be dead by now I'm sure if that were true.

10-18-2012 , 12:47 AM

#2420

Happy_Fish

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Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 7,497

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...182202256.html

Quote:

A blind man carrying a white cane received a 50,000-volt Taser shock from British police who thought his walking stick was a samurai sword.
"It felt like I was grabbing an electricity pylon," 61-year-old Colin Farmer told the BBC.
Lancashire police officer Stuart Williams said authorities had received several calls describing a man walking through the streets carrying a samurai sword.
"One of the officers who arrived in Chorley believed he had located the offender," Williams said. "Despite asking the man to stop, he failed to do so and the officer discharged his Taser."

10-25-2012 , 01:29 PM

#2421

pvn

Guest

Posts: n/a

NYPD contines to get weirder and weirder

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/ny...hem.html?_r=1&

10-25-2012 , 01:51 PM

#2422

DblBarrelJ

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Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 13,857

10-25-2012 , 01:56 PM

#2423

Ineedaride2

Politics Court Jester

Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 25,080

Quote:

Originally Posted by pvn

NYPD contines to get weirder and weirder

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/ny...hem.html?_r=1&

Quote:

In an episode in February, Officer Valle sent an online message to another unnamed person in which he offered to kidnap a woman on the person’s behalf for a price: “$5,000 and she is all yours,” the officer wrote, according to the complaint.

$5,000? Them's yardsale prices.