Free Republic

Will you tone it down, Maverick? A driver in Colorado felt the need for speed, which initially attracted, and later repelled responding red-and-blue. The Denver Post reports that an unknown individual, in an older, dark-colored Ford Mustang, blitzed along a stretch of Interstate 70 that follows the contours of the Colorado River, west of the mountain town Glenwood Springs. Their speed scratched 140 miles per hour, and when the Colorado State Patrol began pursuit with full sirens and flashing lights around 12:30 a.m., the errant driver's speed increased to 150 miles per hour. "They tried to catch up. They weren’t...

**SNIP** At the same time, the fourth generation law enforcement officer with 23 years experience carries a badge and a gun. "My mindset is first and foremost the safety of these children," he said. Dare County is one of just four districts among North Carolina's 115 to have a resource officer in every school, said Michael Anderson, community development and training manager for the N.C. Center for Safer Schools, part of the state's Department of Public Instruction. Expense, district size and lack of resources often prevent placing officers in elementary schools, he said.

Police in Georgia arrested a Lilburn minister as well as his wife and two sons taking them into custody after a brawl broke out in front of their church, the group disarmed one officer and pushed another against a wall. [snip] Shortly after arriving and finding the missing teen in the back of a vehicle with the son of Minister Wilmer Cruz, The Lilburn PD were surrounded by the local minister, his wife, and their two sons and the group moved in on the officers. Realizing they were greatly outnumbered, one of the officers drew his Taser, only to have...

Stephon Clark, the unarmed 22-year-old killed by Sacramento police officers earlier this month, was shot eight times, with most of the bullets hitting him in the back, according to an independent autopsy requested by his family’s attorneys. These bullets — some of which struck Clark in the back, neck and thigh — caused extensive bleeding, said Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist. At least one pierced Clark’s lung, he said.

(New South Wales Public Order and Riot Squad officers with Colt M4 carbines) Citing threats posed by gun-armed criminals and potential terrorists, law enforcement in Australia are getting more rifles. In Victoria, a spokesman for Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton confirmed state police are considering expanding the use of semi-auto rifles for officers, The Age reported. While personnel assigned to Victoria’s Special Operations Group and Critical Incident Response Team already have access to such firepower, patrol officers will likely have access to rifles when needed. “To enhance our abilities to respond to a major security incident or terrorism attack, we...

In the wake of the shooting death of Stephon Clark by Sacramento police, the city's mayor said Wednesday that "implied racism" is behind police shootings. Clark was shot to death in his grandmother's yard last week, and officers said they believed he was carrying a gun but it turned out he was only holding a cellphone. "I do not believe our police force is racist in any way," said Mayor Darrell Steinberg on CBSN. "I don't think that's intended but I do think that implied racism is an undeniable factor in the way these sorts of tragedies play out --...

A US police officer shot dead an unarmed man walking in traffic with his trousers down, and his family says it looks like "premeditated murder". Police dashcam video shows Danny Ray Thomas, 34, walking towards the officer on a road in Houston, Texas, last Thursday before a gunshot rings out. Deputy Cameron Brewer repeatedly shouts "get down on the ground" before firing. Both the officer and victim are black. Mr Thomas' family say he suffered from depression after his children died. His sister, Kita Thomas-Smith, attended a Houston City Council meeting on Tuesday where she tearfully urged politicians do to...

The brother of US shooting victim Stephon Clark has stormed a public meeting of the Sacramento city council, amid continuing anger over his killing by police earlier this month. Leading protesters into the chamber on Tuesday, Stevonte Clarke sat on a table and said the mayor and the city had "failed all of you". The incident happened as the council was debating the death. Stephon Clark, 22, was unarmed when he was shot dead by Sacramento police. Hundreds of people attended Tuesday's meeting, which was called after California's attorney general joined the investigation into the killing. Sacramento police chief Daniel...

At the risk of boring you, gentle reader, I find it necessary to revisit, for the third time in a week, the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Graham v. Connor, which defined how all courts (and everyone else) should evaluate a police officer’s use of force.“The ‘reasonableness’ of a particular use of force,” wrote Chief Justice Rehnquist for a unanimous Court, “must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight. ... The calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often...

The Atlanta Chief of Police said her officers will no longer respond to shoplifting calls at stores in Buckhead. Erika Shields said staff shortages, in excess of 300 officers, has forced her to reevaluate how to deploy officers. In the affluent section north of downtown, Shields said, the APD Zone Two officers frequently get calls from merchants to do a report on a shoplifter who has been caught by store security. After filling out the paperwork, the officer then must arrange a transport to the Atlanta City Jail in downtown. All that can take up to an hour and a...

Rostraver police Officer Martin Palla had a right to stand armed with an AR-15, while off duty, across the street from a March For Our Lives rally in Greensburg, the chief said Monday. Still, Police Chief Greg Resetar was not thrilled with Palla's decision to show up as a counter protester with the weapon. "In my capacity as chief, I cannot condone and do not condone the actions of officer Palla," Resetar told the Tribune-Review. Palla told a Trib reporter during the rally on Friday that he was carrying an unloaded Colt AR-15. He stood across the street from the...

Marjory Stoneman Douglas student and #NeverAgain activist David Hogg told Axios founder Mike Allen at an event in Washington on Friday that his high school feels "like a prison" since the shooting last month, with "hundreds of police officers" patrolling the campus. He said this is a problem because the police are racist against black students: "What I'm very concerned about is the racial disparity between white and black students. For example, black students get suspended at a rate three times higher than white students."

The National Safety Council generates revenue from speeding ticket awareness courses, then gives cities grant funding to issue more tickets. The city council in Akron, Ohio, on Monday adopted an ordinance authorizing the mayor to ask the National Safety Council for $198,389 to pay for a speeding ticket blitz. This "Road to Zero" grant funding would be used to purchase new radar and laser speed guns and to pay police officers 150 percent of their regular salary while issuing those citations. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provides $3 million in taxpayer funding for the National Safety Council's grant program....

Police in Maryland say this was just the start of it: A 1997 Ford Crown Victoria, traveling in front of an officer early Friday morning, veered off a highway and struck a large traffic sign in Montgomery County. Next: A wooden support post from the sign became impaled in the Ford’s front windshield, sticking up and back more than five feet, like a misplaced lance. Yet the driver kept going, refusing to stop even as lights and sirens flashed behind him. “He was lucky no one was killed,” said Officer Rick Goodale, a Montgomery police spokesman. The driver, Omar Rasharn...

A black man with two small children was shot and killed by Sacramento, California police. His only crime? Holding a cellphone while standing in his own backyard.That seems to be the Left’s narrative, anyway, regarding the death of 22-year-old Stephon Clark, who was indeed shot by police in his grandmother’s yard on Sunday night. And given today’s political climate along with mainstream media headlines and activist tweets on the topic, it’s no wonder so many people are outraged.The tweet that perhaps went viral the fastest, with well over 100,000 likes and retweets, came from First Coast News journalist Lana Harris,...

SACRAMENTO -- Four days after 22-year-old Stephon Clark was shot and killed by police officers in his grandparents' backyard, protesters gathered inside and outside Sacramento City Hall. Officers believed Clark had been breaking into cars in the neighborhood and shot him because they say they thought he had a gun. He was only holding a cellphone. "The death of one more man of color is one too many," Mayor Darrell Steinberg said earlier Thursday before the protest began. Protesters clogged major downtown Sacramento streets near City Hall as the Thursday commute was about to begin. Earlier in the day, the...

Shortened title. Full title: ACLU chapter and liberal foundation urge cops not to arrest illegals for crimes they commit to shield them from deportation Remember when liberals claimed they believed in equal protection under the laws? The fanatical hatred for Donald Trump and fanatical desire to replace the population of the United States with third-world people who will vote for Democrats have led the Massachusetts chapter of the ACLU and the progressive Century Foundation to urge police to create a special class of people – violators of immigration laws – protected from arrest for crimes that the rest of us...

In my previous article, I discussed the Supreme Court’s near abandonment of an actual, necessary part of the Constitution, namely the Contract Clause. Contrariwise, a case that the Court should hear involves a harmful legal doctrine that it simply made up, namely “qualified immunity.” Here’s the background. After the Civil War, most members of Congress were concerned that if the states had a free hand, they and their officials would often violate the civil rights of freed slaves and other unpopular groups. So Congress passed and President Grant signed the Civil Rights Act of 1871, which included this provision language...

Local news in Austin reporting serial Bomber killed by police early Wednesday morning.

The Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Australian woman last summer, an incident that led to protests and the ouster of the city’s police chief, was booked into jail Tuesday on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The shooting of the woman, Justine Damond, by Officer Mohamed Noor on July 15 renewed questions about police conduct and training in a region that has seen a series of police shootings in recent years.