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A one-vehicle accident on rural Highway 141 on Monday triggered a search through the desert for passengers and eventually led to the arrest of one man for suspicion of human smuggling and the pending deportation of four of the passengers. Juan Denys Hernandez Varenez, a Cuban national, has been charged with four counts of smuggling of humans, a class 3 felony. The San Miguel Sheriff’s Office suspects that he was smuggling four undocumented foreigners to the Denver area when the sedan he was driving crashed. All of the passengers, including a 20-year-old female from Grand Junction whose involvement is unknown,...

Two Connecticut cops shot and injured two other officers during an arrest of a suspected child porn perv outside a late-night screening of the new Harry Potter movie. ~~~ State police said they were continuing to investigate the incident.

BANDERA, Texas -- The Bandera County Sheriff's Office issued a warning Thursday to citizens about an anti-government movement known for acts of domestic terrorism. The law enforcement agency said followers of The Sovereign Citizens Movement have been known to carry out violent acts, including killing law enforcement officers and other public servants.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo.— An alligator caused a lot of commotion for one Independence man Sunday when three Independence police officers shot at his concrete lawn ornament. Rick Sheridan was working in his garage when he heard gunshots. He went around the back of his house to a pond, where he saw three police officers. The three officers had spotted the gator and were lined up on the bank, shooting at the large reptile. "The officer fired two rounds, and killed my concrete, ornamental alligator," Sheridan said. After realizing their bullets were bouncing off the yard art alligator, police left. Sheridan says...

Two Kansas City police officers who thought they were being shot at from inside a van returned fire Thursday night. Only later did police realize that the van was actually backfiring and the man inside was not armed. He was not injured by the shots fired by police. Windows of the police car were apparently shot out by the officers as they exited the patrol car.

The acrimony surrounding health care reform, stoked up to white hotness as the 2010 midterm elections draw nigh, seems to have claimed another victim, albeit an odd one: Andy Griffith, the long-living television and film star.

Denver officials are deeply divided over the proper level of punishment for a police officer who was seen on video tackling and beating a 23-year-old man who was doing nothing but talking on a telephone outside a LoDo nightclub. The video of Officer Devin Sparks repeatedly hitting Michael DeHerrera of Denver with a department-issued piece of metal wrapped in leather, picking him up roughly and slamming a car door on his ankle has prompted Independent Monitor Richard Rosenthal to push for the firing of Sparks and Corporal Randy Murr.

Idaho State Police are investigating what is being described as an accidental shooting involving the 9mm handgun of an off-duty Emmett police officer that injured a woman and two boys, ages 2 and 3. ISP Captain Steve Richardson says the gun discharged one bullet Friday morning in a Gem County residence, injuring the three people. Police are declining to release more information, including the relationship of the people involved and who had the gun when it discharged. Police say the three who were injured were taken by private vehicle to Walter Knox Memorial Hospital in Emmett, where the woman and...

Diboll police officer Grant Jones has resigned amid a flurry of debate surrounding a controversial traffic stop last week. Jones gave his formal resignation Tuesday afternoon at 2:30. "His resignation was short, and to the point," according to Diboll City Manager Dennis McDuffie. [...] Upon hearing of Jones' resignation, [victim] Johnny Hodge said it's good that Jones realized he was wrong and stepped down from his position. The city attorney for Diboll has promised to release the Diboll Police dash cam video on Wednesday. The stop in question occurred on July 27 as Tracey Lott was driving his friend, Johnny...

An off-duty Thunderbolt police officer accidentally discharged a handgun inside United Community Bank on Victory Drive on Monday morning. The police department is conducting an internal review of this incident, which involved an officer Chief Irene Pennington identified as C. Watson. Watson was at the bank at 2225 E. Victory about 9 a.m. and was chatting with a loan officer who was considering purchasing a handgun, Pennington said, and the officer withdrew his weapon to show it to the bank official. The handgun was the officer’s personal weapon. The officer, who has been with the department for two years, will...

Two Columbia police officers are the focus of a civil lawsuit concerning an incident last year in which a man was tasered after a traffic stop. Attorney Samuel Trapp filed the civil suit yesterday in federal court in Jefferson City on behalf of Cadilac Derrick, 23, of Columbia. On Feb. 24, 2009, Derrick was driving his registered Suburu down Providence Road when Columbia police Officers Tim Giger and John Logan pulled him over, according to the lawsuit A video posted on YouTube shows the incident captured by police cameras. The officers approached each side of the car, in which Derrick’s...

TOLEDO, OH (WTVG) -- A never-before-seen police dash cam video was shown in court today in the trial of an Ottawa Hills police officer accused of unnecessarily shooting and paralyzing a man during a traffic stop.

US POLICE raided a bar in Ocean City, Maryland, over the weekend after customers there confused a female drinker for Canadian teen heartthrob Justin Bieber. Regulars at the Mug and Mallet bar confirmed police entered the venue Saturday night, following reports that Bieber, 16, was drinking underage inside reported TMZ today. Instead, they found a 27-year-old female Bieber lookalike, with the same petite frame and tousled short brown hairstyle as that of the pint-sized pop sensation. The woman, known only as Katie, told TMZ she was mistaken for Bieber all the time - and was forced to produce her ID...

They toppled Hillary Clinton, crushed John McCain and managed to get the first black man elected president of the United States. But now a series of recent missteps just keeps getting worse for Barack Obama's political operation, already under fire from inside the party for losing its golden touch. The second-guessing of the White House political shop — which is coming in part from top House Democrats — was sparked anew late Wednesday by news that the White House tried and failed to coax another Democratic Senate candidate out of making his race by dangling administration jobs in front of...

In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer. Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists. The legal justification for arresting the "shooter" rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited. Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which...

Isaac Newton formulated three laws of motion, No. 3 being: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If he were still around, he'd propose a fourth: For every action, there is an unequal and opposite overreaction. Lately, Americans seem to be taking advice from Oscar Wilde, who said, "Moderation is a fatal thing." Stupidity can be met and defeated with sensible, proportionate measures. Or it can be met with even greater stupidity. Guess which is the preferred option these days. Last week, a 17-year-old knucklehead exposed his idiocy to the world by venturing onto the field at...

Unless you've been living in a Waziristan cave for the last 24 years, you've heard about the unfortunate misdemeanor-breaking dude who got Tasered at a Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park last night. My computer screen here in Center City went all a-Twitter about it even before all the electrons had even stopped flowing through 17-year-old suburban high school senior Steve Consalvi. My gut instinct when I first learned of it was the same as I feel about it a day later: That while it wasn't exactly a Rodney King affair, clearly the officer had used excessive force. I've been...

Demonstrators call for firing of officer videotaped striking mentally disabled man   More than 100 people gathered today outside Passaic City Hall to demand that the Police Department fire an officer who was videotaped striking a mentally disabled man repeatedly with a baton and his fists. Ronnie Holloway, the man beaten in the May 29 incident, and his mother, Betty, attended the peaceful demonstration, which was organized by various community leaders.  “This man should never have gone through what he did,” said Zachary McDaniel, pastor of the Second Timothy Baptist Church in Passaic. “Cops are here to protect us. How can...

Andre Doss said he responded to his father's call for help at his local business and called 9-1-1 himself. Police arrived and shot him instead. In a CBS 2 HD exclusive we have the audio recording of just what happened when police were executing a search warrant in Roselle, N.J. When Andre Doss was shot in the upper torso, family members said by a police officer, it was all being recorded. Doss: "Oh Lord, please, please, please, please, please, please, please ... call an ambulance! Somebody shot me!" Doss: "Why did you shoot me? Why did you shoot me sir?...

ANO, Texas - A police officer was put on desk duty after pulling over an NFL player rushing to see his dying mother-in-law in the hospital and holding him in the hospital parking lot as she died. Dallas police officer Robert Powell stopped Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats' SUV outside Baylor Regional Medical Center during the early hours of March 18 after Moats rolled through a red light. Moats and his family had gotten a call saying his mother-in-law was dying. Video from a dashboard camera inside the officer's vehicle, obtained by Dallas-Fort Worth station WFAA-TV, revealed an intense...

An 89-year-old Cincinnati-area woman arrested for confiscating the neighbor kid's football is now suing the boy's parents. Edna Jester filed a lawsuit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court claiming she has suffered emotional distress because footballs and other playthings belonging to her next-door neighbors keep landing in her yard. In October, Jester refused to return a football, was taken to the Blue Ash police station and charged with petty theft. The prosecutor later dropped the case. The lawsuit against parents Paul and Kelly Tanis seeks unspecified monetary damages. Kelly Tanis calls the suit "very silly" but says she and her...

http://www.reason.comhttp://www.reason.com/blog/show/130429.html Gotcha! Radley Balko | December 6, 2008, 1:28pm Like Mark Draughn, I've been somewhat skeptical of Barry Cooper, the former drug cop turned pitchman for how-to-beat-the-cops videos. He comes off as more of a huckster than a principled whistle-blower, which I think does the good ideas he stands for (police reform) more harm than good. But damn. I have to hand it to him. This might be one of the ballsiest moves I've ever seen. KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing...

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina sheriff's official has apologized for plunging a funeral into chaos when undercover agents tried to arrest the dead man's son—and used a Taser on him in the process. It happened as the coffin was being loaded into a hearse. The officers planned to quietly arrest pallbearer Gladwyn Taft Russ III, The Star-News of Wilmington reported Wednesday. Relatives said two deputies dressed in coats and ties grabbed Russ and kneed him in his back before Tasering him. One deputy's gun fell out of its holster. Russ' sister, Taffy Gause, said when she got out...

A man wearing a McCain-Palin T-shirt during a Philadelphia celebration on election night was arrested, cuffed and stuffed into a police cruiser, and supporters said it was for no more than wearing the endorsement of the GOP nominees for president and vice-president. Although the man protested that he didn't want to cause any trouble, officers manhandled and arrested him, the video posted on YouTube shows.

Indianapolis - Undercover police snatched the wheels of unsuspecting MotoGP fans over the weekend. It was a secret sting operation to seize and recover stolen motorcycles. But one Harley owner says police went overboard in his case. Briggs Blakemore just got his hog back - a 1981 Harley Davidson Electra Glide Classic. "The police told me the reason why they were confiscating the bike was because it was stolen. I said it's not stolen. He said yes it is. He said the motor and the frame don't match," said Blakemore. His bike sat locked up in the police impound for...

He calls himself "Jimmy Justice," a self-styled "cop-arazzi," armed only with a video camera as he prowls the streets of New York looking for law enforcement officers who are breaking the law. His targets are illegally parked city government vehicles -- particularly cars of traffic cops blocking bus stops, sitting in "no parking" zones or double-parked. Cop cars blocking fire hydrants make him particularly incensed. "Something like that is just despicable," Jimmy fumed, pointing to a police enforcement vehicle parked next to a fire hydrant on 33rd Street on Manhattan's West Side on a muggy July afternoon. "They're never allowed...

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Family members are angry and speaking out after Dayton police used a stun gun on a woman who is blind and suffering from cancer. Police said they were looking for a suspect when they knocked on Denise Harris's door Thursday morning. But according to both police and witnesses, things quickly got out of hand and Harris was tased. "She was able to force herself down on to the floor and not be cooperative, grabbing on to the detective. A taser was dry stunned onto her arm to control her hand movement, then she was cuffed," said...

The woman - who according to several witnesses announced that she was a New Orleans police officer - had come to the Treme Community Center to pick up a 7-year-old nephew and, for reasons unknown, became enraged at the driver of the car in front of her in the pickup line, witnesses said. Numerous witnesses said the woman relentlessly honked her car horn. As the situation escalated, she yelled expletives at the other driver and got halfway out of her car and brandished a gun, they said. At that point one of the witnesses called 911... Police Department spokesman Bob...

Students attending a youth leadership conference were reprimanded by capitol security on July 10 for singing the National Anthem and God Bless America in the state capitol rotunda. The patriotic expression was apparently so egregious that state troopers were called in to the rotunda to rebuke the students. As the students ended their singing, several armed troopers entered the rotunda along with capitol sergeants-at-arms. They confronted conference staff and informed them that such singing is prohibited in the state capitol without a permit from the Rules Committee. Undeterred by their shocking treatment at the hands of government officials, the students...

Standards aren’t about generating revenue. Motorcycle officers in Colorado Springs should each be writing a minimum of 11 tickets a day, and their counterparts in patrol cars should issue at least one... But these aren't quotas, Police Chief Richard Myers said. During an impromptu media briefing Friday, Myers described them as guidelines that help supervisors keep track of their officers' job performance ... Ticket quotas - feared and despised by drivers everywhere - demand that officers meet goals or face mandatory discipline, Myers told reporters. That's not the case here, he said. "Police officers are paid for by taxpayers, and...

I can't help but notice that the NYS Police, the Sheriff's, and the local town and city cops no longer walk the beat or do much "protecting" They are trained now to make their primary priority issuing minor tickets that have big fines. Offense: Cell phone use = $150 bucks They also are trained to scan your auto inspection sticker, one day out of inspection and you may pay $200. Speed traps, you name it, Police are now a profit center first and foremost, more reason for people who want to prtect themselves to purchase the guns of their choice.

A Hillsborough sheriff's deputy who said he had always wanted to spend his life in law enforcement used a Taser on his wife then held his service pistol to her head before he was arrested and held for mental evaluation, deputies say. Carlos Thomas Tanner, 38, a 10-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was arrested at his Dover home about 1:45 a.m. Monday. He is charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor battery-domestic violence. Tanner was taken in under the state's Baker Act because he threatened to harm himself if he were arrested, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie...

Vest, shirt, badge - check. Pants, boots, gun belt - check. About 800 Phoenix police officers and up to 400 Mesa officers believe changing into and out of their uniforms each day is doing work, so they've sued in federal court to be paid for their time. U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake ruled in April that the Mesa Police Association shouldn't receive any money, according to court records, but the union has recently appealed the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The lawsuit has cost Mesa more than $187,600 to fight so far, according to public...

Woman pulled cop from wrecked car in 2002, but police said she stole service weapon A trained nurse, Rachelle Jackson immediately ran toward the sound of the crash. A Chicago police car had collided with another vehicle and was starting to smoke, two officers still inside. Fearing an explosion, she quickly pulled one officer from the passenger side.She never imagined her act of kindness nearly six years ago would land her in jail for more than 10 months on charges that she robbed, battered and disarmed a peace officer. Jackson filed a lawsuit, and on Thursday a federal jury found...

A man was handcuffed, arrested and dragged before a court after falling off the settee with laughter while watching Have I Got News For You. Christopher Cocker, 36, was enjoying the BBC1 show when a joke made by panellist Paul Merton had him doubled up with laughter. He collapsed on the floor - but the thud startled his downstairs neighbour who, believing he had collapsed, called police. Officers arrived and said Cocker was initially co-operative but became 'aggressive' when they asked his name and tried to shut his front door. He was eventually disabled with parva spray through the gap...

A firearms instructor in southern Massachusetts has been assigned to other duties after his gun accidentally went off while he was teaching a class on weapons safety. Officials say the Glock handgun discharged while Maj. Donald Lamar was demonstrating to Bristol County deputy sheriffs how to safely holster the weapon.

<p>RIVERDALE, Utah — The police chief in Riverdale accidentally shot himself in an ankle while demonstrating how to dislodge a jammed handgun.</p> <p>Chief Dave Hansen was taken to McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden for surgery.</p> <p>The 54-year-old chief accidentally fired a gun during a training exercise inside a conference room at Riverdale police headquarters.</p>

04/03/2008 Police in Portsmouth, New Hampshire arrest woman, impound dog over eight year old parking ticket. Police in Portsmouth, New Hampshire have a long history of arresting motorists over minor offenses. Despite recent promises of reform, the force on Monday not only threw the book at a 58-year-old woman, but her dog as well. Susan Lehman alleged crime was failure to pay a couple of parking tickets issued eight years ago. "It wasn't fun," Lehman told the Portsmouth Herald newspaper. "I was totally dumbfounded by the situation." Police nabbed her in the afternoon as she attempted to refuel her car...

"I am the only one in this room professional enough to carry a Glock 40....." (BOOM!!!!) Video Here

If you travel enough, you've seen it all -- and possibly some of the awful things that can happen while traveling will have actually happened to you. But nothing I've read about or experienced comes close to what Monica Emmerson experienced while at Reagan National Airport on June 11th while traveling with her 19-month-old toddler. This isn't one of those Catch-22 bureaucratic snafus; this isn't about rules being applied to the letter. This story is mostly about what can happen simply because the authorities in charge decide that they're going to exercise their authority because they can, regardless of whether...

PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune Lisa Maree Gaut was arraigned Thursday in the case involving Chargers linebacker Steve Foley. The charges against her include assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer. Conflicting versions of the controversial shooting of San Diego Chargers linebacker Steve Foley unfolded yesterday during and after a court hearing in which Foley's female companion pleaded not guilty to criminal charges. The prosecutor painted a picture of drunken, criminal behavior in which Foley was wounded by an off-duty police officer who felt he was “trapped” in a cul de sac near Foley's home and in danger...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - An unfinished statue of Barney Fife apparently won't be heading to Don Knotts' hometown after all. Knotts' widow endorses a statue but says the monument should be of her husband, not of the bumbling deputy he made famous on "The Andy Griffith Show." Knotts died in February at age 81. "We consider the dissemination of his image to be a big responsibility that we take very seriously," Francey Knotts and Andy Griffith said in a statement. "No one cares more about Don's image than we do. It would be wonderful to have a statue in Morgantown, W.Va.,...

Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills.

LOS ANGELES - Don Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show," has died. He was 81. Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs "The Andy Griffith Show," and another Knotts hit, "Three's Company." Unspecified health problems had forced him to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown in August 2005. The West Virginia-born actor's half-century career included seven TV series and more than...

Just heard on Fox News. Don Knotts dead at 81

Boy charged with felony for carrying sugar BY JUSTINA WANG A 12-year-old Aurora boy who said he brought powdered sugar to school for a science project this week has been charged with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug, Aurora police have confirmed. The sixth-grade student at Waldo Middle School was also suspended for two weeks from school after showing the bag of powdered sugar to his friends. The boy, who is not being identified because he is a juvenile, said he brought the bag to school to ask his science teacher if he could run an experiment using sugar....

A San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy who shot a 21-year-old Air Force security officer in an incident captured by a video camera appears to have violated accepted police tactics and may have committed a criminal offense, experts in the use of force by police said Wednesday.~snip~ San Bernardino County sheriff's officials have refused to release the name of the deputy, although state law makes the identity of law enforcement officers involved in shootings a matter of public record. A source close to the investigation confirmed the identity of the deputy as Ivory J. Webb IV, 45. Answering the front door...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- For three weeks, police said she was a stripper named Gia who sold marijuana and had ties to a Columbus gang. But Tanya Robinson, 31, an emergency-room nurse and mother of two, was cleared of those charges when officers realized they'd nabbed the wrong woman. An investigation by the State Highway Patrol has shed some light on what led to Robinson's mistaken arrest in late June. Nearly a year and a half before Robinson's arrest, a stripper who called herself Gia sold $50 worth of marijuana to Harold Kolsky, an undercover agent with the Ohio Investigative Unit....

Don Knotts' failing health has forced his hometown to indefinitely postpone a parade and film festival in his honor that had been scheduled for Aug. 12-14. A doctor for the 81-year-old Emmy-winning actor advised him not to travel from Beverly Hills, Calif., said Stacey Brodak, executive director of the Greater Morgantown Convention and Visitors Bureau. "He had hoped to be here for the celebration, but escalating health issues have made it unwise for him to make the cross-country trip at this time," she said Tuesday. Brodak did not elaborate on the nature of his ailment. Knotts, a Morgantown native with...