Free Republic

FORT BENNING, Ga., Dec. 24, 2009 – The first blind student to attend the Maneuver Captain's Career Course here graduated with his class Dec. 15 in a ceremony attended by family and friends. Army Lt. Col. Fredrick Dummar, commander of the Special Operations Recruiting Battalion at Fort Bragg, N.C., congratulates Army Capt. Ivan Castro on graduating from the Maneuver Captain's Career Course at Fort Benning, Ga., Dec. 15, 2009. Castro, who will be assigned to the recruiting battalion, is the first blind student to attend the course. U.S. Army photo by Kristin Molinaro   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

Peru's police chief has suspended a top investigator for saying he had caught a gang who were murdering people to sell their fat. Last month, top organised crime investigator Felix Murga said police had arrested four suspects who confessed to murdering up to 60 people. He said they were selling their fat for thousands of dollars a litre. But the macabre tale now appears to be nothing more than a tall story - or a big fat lie. 'Sold-on' In an extraordinary press conference, police showed two bottles of what they said was human fat and a photo of a...

There is no yelling. No invective. No spittle-laced derision. Instead, there is a soft, warm welcome for the dozens of young men and women reporting to Officer Candidates School at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia. Arriving in polos and khakis, they check in at their leisure, anytime between 8 a.m. and 11:59 p.m., filing off buses or dropped off by well-wishing parents at what could just as well be the first day of college. This is no Parris Island, the legendary boot camp in South Carolina where the drill instructors' ferocity explodes almost the instant recruits arrive. But for the...

<p>Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- A civilian police officer who shot the Fort Hood gunman four times during his bloody rampage stopped the attacker cold, a U.S. Army official said Friday.</p> <p>Officer Kimberly Munley of the Fort Hood Police Department is a "trained, active first responder" who acted quickly after she "just happened to encounter the gunman," said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, Fort Hood's commanding general.</p>

Police Officer to Protester:This ain't America no more

Lots of outrageously outraged e-mails flowing in about this, although it’s interesting to me mainly as a First Amendment curio. The footage comes from Jim Moran’s health-care town hall on Tuesday night. The question: Can a congressman bar signs, or certain types of signs, from an event at which he’s speaking? The answer (and the ambiguity) turns, I assume, on whether the event is “public” or “private.” It’s a public school and Moran is very much a public official, but recall that Claire McCaskill evidently got away with imposing a “no signs” policy at her own town hall where the...

COCOA, Fla. -- A law enforcement officer who is still recovering from being shot six times last week spoke at a news conference Thursday morning.

Gates, 58, says the sergeant repeatedly refused to reveal his name or badge number; Crowley, 42, says the professor initially refused to provide identification, then produced only his Harvard ID card, which included no address, to prove he lived in the house. Crowley told a local radio station Thursday that Obama "didn't know all the facts" and that Gates — a prolific scholar of African-American history and a leading intellectual — had been oddly belligerent from the start of their encounter July 16. "From the time he opened the door it seemed that he was very upset, very put off...

MELBOURNE BEACH, Fla. -- The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says officers caught suspected wildlife cop shooter, Christopher Eddy, Friday evening in Melbourne Beach. Eddy, 23, is suspected of shooting veteran Fish and Wildlife Officer Vann Streety at least six times, during a traffic stop in a rural area in west Cocoa. Investigators tracked Eddy down in a wooded area on A1A, in Melbourne Beach after he tried to steal a car. Eddy admitted his crime to Eyewitness News as he was being handcuffed. “It was just unjust the way they treated me, because they pulled me over and they...

A prison officer claims she was hounded out of her job by repeated criticism for being 'too sexy' and 'glammed up'. Amitjo Kajla, 22, is demanding compensation from Justice Secretary Jack Straw. The 5ft officer told an employment tribunal how colleagues complained that she wore too much make-up and that her clothing was more revealing than the standard-issue uniform, which had to be adapted to her tiny size-four frame. One young inmate told her: 'Miss, you look sexy', prompting colleagues to warn the officer that her glamorous appearance left her at risk of being dragged into a cell. Another inmate...

An Arizona Department of Public Safety officer and Tucson resident was killed in a plane crash in Nebraska Thursday. Officer Allen Peterson, 51, was piloting the aircraft when it crashed in Arthur County. The cause is under investigation. The crash was reported at 4 p.m. after a property owner discovered the wreckage and called the Arthur County Sheriff’s Office. Peterson was the sole occupant of the plane, according to the Nebraska State Patrol. He was visiting family in Minnesota and was returning to Arizona at the time. “Officer Allen Peterson served the department and the citizen’s of Arizona with dignity...

The Delaware Department of Correction says a correctional officer charged with sending harassing e-mails to the governor has been placed on leave with pay. Department spokesman John Painter says 50-year-old Steven Lenhart of Dover was placed on leave Friday pending the outcome of the investigation of the charges.

The New Orleans Police Department is advising the public to be on the look out for a man impersonating a law enforcement officer who forced his way into two homes over the past two days, forcing his victims disrobe and then demanding drugs before fleeing, according to NOPD spokeswoman Sabrina Richardson. In one case, he fondled the victim, Richardson said. On both occasions the suspect was dressed in a dark blue uniform style shirt with an unknown type of patch, she said. Police did not indicate where the incidents occurred, but said the first incident happened Sunday. The suspect told...

A retired St. Paul police officer was wounded Saturday when a pistol belonging to an off-duty Minneapolis police officer accidentally discharged at a gun show. Both men were working security at the Minneapolis Gun Show at the Minneapolis Convention Center when the accident happened about 1:15 p.m., said Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia. The semi-automatic pistol went off when the holster got caught on a chair that the Minneapolis officer was either leaning back on or getting off of, Garcia said. One bullet hit the floor and fragmented pieces struck the retired officer in the leg and hand, Garcia...

A former Lodi Police officer who shot himself in the hand in March will receive $100,000 in a workers' compensation payment from the city. Lance Hayden Sgt. Lance Hayden accidentally shot himself while he was alone at a shooting range in the basement of the former police station at 210 W. Elm St. He will not be able to return to duty. The Lodi City Council approved the settlement in a 4-1 vote Wednesday night in closed session. Councilwoman Susan Hitchcock was the dissenting vote. The money for the payment will come out of the city's Workers' Compensation Insurance fund,...

PINEVILLE, Mo. | A southwest Missouri police officer is facing felony theft charges after a laptop computer he dropped off at a sheriff's office to get software installed was identified as the same one he was accused of stealing more than a year earlier. [...snip...] The woman told police she saw Cummings take her computer and put it in the back of his patrol car. But when she asked for the computer to be returned after she was released, Cummings denied having it and the woman did not get it back, records say. She reported it stolen to the Pineville...

MINOT, N.D.—An Air Force supervisor says a Minot Air Force Base officer admitted taking a missile launch control device as a souvenir because he thought it would be "a cool thing to have."

MOUNT JULIET, Tenn. - A Midstate man said a police officer nearly choked him to death during a traffic stop. The incident was caught on tape. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating how Mount Juliet Cpl. Bill Cosby interacted with James Anders, Jr. Cosby stopped the 26-year-old Wilson County man in April. Cosby suspected Anders hid marijuana in his mouth. The officer used a vascular restraint technique to keep Anders from swallowing. On the video recorded inside Cosby's patrol car, Cosby said he smelled marijuana and handcuffed Anders and his passenger. The video also showed the officer putting his...

FORMER LAPD VETERAN CHARGED WITH POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY AND CHILD ANNOYANCE AFTER TAKING SEXUAL PICTURES OF YOUNG GIRLS AT 2007 STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL GARDEN GROVE – A former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) veteran was arrested and charged today with felony possession of child pornography and multiple counts of child annoyance following an extensive joint investigation by the Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) and Garden Grove Police Department (GGPD). Ralph Cameron Lakin, 53, La Palma, was charged with one count of felony possession of child pornography involving Jane Doe #10, eight counts of misdemeanor child annoyance involving Jane Does #1...

(IsraelNN.com) Jewish U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Officer Brian Israel, a border officer on the Canadian-American border is sueing the US Border Patrol after years of anti-Semitic abise. According to VIN News, "Officer Israel was subjected to anti-Semitic activity almost immediately [upon being hired ten years ago]. He found swastikas and Waffen SS lighting stripes on his locker, and was regularly sent out by his management to clear 'his people' when the 'smelly Jew Bus' (typically vehicles operated by Heiman's Bus Service or other companies from Brooklyn) [arrived]." The report continues: "Though Israel is a life-long public servant with...