Author Archives: BZ

Cop Fired for Speaking Out Against Ticket and Arrest Quotas

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speed-trap-signFrom Reason.com:

| July 24, 2013

Auburn, Alabama is home to sprawling plains, Auburn University, and a troubling police force. After the arrival of a new police chief in 2010, the department entered an era of ticket quotas and worse.

“When I first heard about the quotas I was appalled,” says former Auburn police officer Justin Hanners, who claims he and other cops were given directives to hassle, ticket, or arrest specific numbers of residents per shift. “I got into law enforcement to serve and protect, not be a bully.”

Hanners blew the whistle on the department’s tactics and was eventually fired for refusing to comply and keep quiet. He says that each officer was required to make 100 contacts each month, which included tickets, arrests, field interviews, and warnings. This equates to 72,000 contacts a year in a 50,000 person town. His claims are backed up by audio recordings of his superiors he made. The Auburn police department declined requests to be interviewed for this story.

“There are not that many speeders, there are not that many people running red lights to get those numbers, so what [the police] do is they lower their standards,” says Hanners. That led to the department encouraging officers to arrest people that Hanners “didn’t feel like had broken the law.”

It’s no secret that I’m a cop, still employed at my advanced and decrepit age.  In my moribund decline I’ve discovered that I lean more Libertarian in my views, along with an exuberant bushel and peck of Conservatism.

That said, I respect privacy and I respect common, decent behavior and expect that kind of behavior to be exhibited, by cops, to the public in general.  As a supervisor, I expect my troops to mirror this behavior.

A quota for traffic and a quota for arrests grates against the already-chafed side of my Libertarian bent.  Producing just to produce — and producing it poorly — provides the public just another way to denigrate the overall authority, cogency and trustworthiness of law enforcement.

In this same vein I also mightily dislike red light cameras or other means of automatic, mechanical ticketing, eliminating the human aspect.  I believe these devices diminish the respect for law enforcement and remove human interaction from the loop.

Manufacturers of these systems also, had you not known, get a kickdown percentage of the cut from each ticket issued.

Now, some cities are actually removing their red light cameras.  The City of San Diego pulled its red light cameras “as city officials cited public hostility and no measurable decline in accidents.

Mayor Bob Filner, at a Friday press conference, carried away a photo-enforcement sign from North Harbor Drive and West Grape Street, near San Diego International Airport, reports U-T San Diego.

Nearly 20,000 motorists a year received $490 tickets in a program that “can only be justified if there are demonstrable facts that prove that they raise the safety awareness and decrease accidents in our city,” Filner said. “The data, in fact, does not really prove it.”

Real cops know what’s right and wrong.  Ginning up arrests and tickets for stats is meaningless and serves to minimize respect for law enforcement in general.

BZ

 

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California plant offers ‘toilet-to-tap’ water recycling

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Cat On ToiletNothing like drinking your own feces.

From WMUR (New Hampshire).com:

SAN JOSE, Calif. —People in Santa Clara County, Calif., will get a new water source in the next few months, but some might not be too thrilled when they find out where it’s coming from.

San Jose children have been playing in recycled fountain water for years, but now, officials said, water that’s pure enough to drink is coming from the same place.

The source for Santa Clara County’s newest, cleanest and virtually limitless water is the sewage treatment plant near Alviso. Later this fall, pre-treated wastewater from the plant will flow into a new $68 million Silicon Valley advanced water purification center.

Though not funneled to your tap just yet, you can bet your bottom dollar that goal is just around the bend.

Hey, my feces just may taste wonderful.  And my confidence in government has never been greater.

BZ

 

 

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Dennis Farina: dead at 69 (February 29, 1944 – July 22, 2013)

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Dennis FarinaOne of my favorite character actors has been Dennis Farina.

And one of my all-time favorite series was Crime Story which ran on TV from 1986 to 1988, via 44 episodes, where Farina portrayed Lt Vince Torello.

Crime Story TVDennis Farina, unknown to most everyone, was a Chicago Police Department officer for 18 years, from 1967 to 1985.

He first appeared in Michael Mann’s move “Thief” in 1981.

The facts:

Dennis Farina, the actor and former Chicago police officer who played coiled, hot-tempered characters in movies and on television, died Monday in Scottsdale, Ariz., from a blood clot in his lung, his publicist said. He was 69.

Farina also appeared as Det. Joe Fontana in 46 episodes of NBC’s Law & Order, added to the cast following the death of Jerry Orbach. That made him the only performer on the Dick Wolf series with an actual background in law enforcement. He left in 2006 to pursue film projects.

“I was stunned and saddened to hear about Dennis’ unexpected passing this morning,” Wolf said in a statement. “The Law & Order family extends sympathy and condolences to his family. He was a great guy.”

Hollywood’s Notable Deaths of 2013

Farina’s other small-screen credits include Michael Mann’s late 1980s NBC crime drama Crime Story; the private detective title character on his own 1998 CBS series, Buddy Faro, which only lasted eight episodes; hosting Unsolved Mysteries starting in 2008 after the death of original host Robert Stack; and, more recently, a stint as Dustin Hoffman’s right-hand man, Gus, in David Milch’s short-lived HBO horse-racing series Luck.

Farina also famously starred as a Chicago mob boss swindled by accountant Charles Grodin in Martin Brest’s Midnight Run (1988); an army colonel in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998); the retired lawman father of Jennifer Lopez’s character in Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998); and a Jewish diamond merchant in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch. (2000).

If you wanted a character actor who dripped truth and verisimilitude, you chose Dennis Farina.

God bless you sir.  And thank you for your service.

BZ

 

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George Zimmerman Emerged From Hiding for Truck Crash Rescue

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Again: I don’t make these things up.  I am merely an aggregator of the news from around the world, with opinions mixed in.  But sometimes these things simply write themselves.  From ABCNews.com:

George Zimmerman, who has been in hiding since he was acquitted of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, emerged to help rescue a family who was trapped in an overturned vehicle, police said today.

Zimmerman was one of two men who came to the aid of Dana and Mark Gerstle and their two children, who were trapped inside a blue Ford Explorer SUV that had rolled over after traveling off the highway in Sanford, Fla. at approximately 5:45 p.m. Thursday, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The crash occurred at the intersection of I-4 and route Route 46, police said. The crash site is less than a mile from where Zimmerman shot Martin.

By the time police arrived, two people – including Zimmerman – had already helped the family get out of the overturned car, the sheriff’s office said. No one was reported to be injured.

Zimmerman was not a witness to the crash and left after speaking with the deputy, police said.

It’s the first known sighting of Zimmerman since he left the courtroom following his controversial acquittal last week on murder charges for the death of Martin. Zimmerman, 29, shot and killed Martin, 17, in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2012. The jury determined that Zimmerman shot Martin in self-defense.

Another link to this incident here.

Once again, the racist George Zimmerman at work.  I’m certain there are witnesses who will confirm that Zimmerman glanced into the cab of the vehicle with purposeful scrutiny in order to determine the race of the persons he would potentially rescue.

If they were white Hispanics, they would be subject to his salving efforts.  If not, to hell with them.

Once again, clear and obvious evidence of Zimmerman’s blatant racism.  That evil, evil George Zimmerman.

BZ

 

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