Police Behaving Badly 11.12.14

Saratoga County Sheriff’s Deputy Shawn Glans has been suspended without pay following the release of a video of the officer apparently slapping a suspect.

The video shows the officer, Sgt. Shawn Glans, cursing at the person he was speaking with, and the sound of what the videotaper alleges was a slap can be heard. Officers had spotted a rifle in the back of the parked car, according to the video.

“It is disturbing,” Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo said of the situation Saturday. “The minute we heard about it, we began an investigation. We’re going to be up front about it and deal with it.”

Glans has been suspended without pay pending an investigation and disciplinary action after an incident that took place during an interview in Halfmoon early Friday. Deputies responded to a call about a suspicious vehicle, and found a car in a business parking lot with the rifle in the back seat.

Glans and another officer questioned two young men who they saw walk to the car, and a confrontation ensued when the owner refused to give police access to the vehicle.

You can see the video at LiveLeak.

* * * *

Alabama ex-deputy admits to forcing woman to cook meth to feed his addiction

Grady Keith Concord pleaded guilty to one count each of extortion under color of official right, manufacturing methamphetamine, and manufacturing and distributing methamphetamine on premises where children are present or reside, reported AL.com.

The 42-year-old Concord, who admits he was addicted to drugs, was arrested in June on drug manufacturing charges and fired from the Winston County Sheriff’s Department.

According to court documents, Concord approached a Nauvoo woman in July 2013 and arranged to supply her with pseudoephedrine if she would supply him with the finished product.

Investigators said the deputy took decongestant pills containing the meth precursor from the sheriff’s department evidence room, and Concord and his wife also bought the medication for use making illegal drugs.

Concord denied the woman’s claim that he threatened her with arrest, but he agrees she might have felt pressured to participate because he was a sheriff’s deputy.

I’m sure she felt no pressure from an officer of the law.  It’s not like they have higher social standing or anything. And we’re never taught to automatically listen to and respect them.  Nosiree.

* * * *

The United States is not the only country that has problems with its police force. A woman in Winnipeg was brutally beaten by an officer as her 8 year old child watched.  

Lana Sinclair told CBC that Winnipeg police officers showed up on Halloween night to investigate reports of “yelling.” One officer spoke to her son, while another officer talked to her.

“He came up to me and poked me,” Sinclair recalled. “I was sitting on a chair in the kitchen and I jumped up and said you don’t need to touch me.”

The officer pulled out a baton, and beat her with it, she explained to CTV. She said he then smashed her face into a work table, and into the floor.

“He had my arm behind me and he smashed my face right here,” Sinclair said, pointing to her sewing table.

She said the officer handcuffed her, stood her up, and then kicked her feet out from under her. Sinclair hit the floor face first.

To make matters worse, she said her 8-year-old son watched then entire incident.

“We [my son and I] were both traumatized,” Sinclair noted. “I just hug him and kiss him and tell him it’s okay.”

* * * *

West Virginia homeless man loses only photos of dead wife when cop throws backpack in river

 

According to a criminal complaint obtained by the The Charleston Gazette, Charleston Patrolman Brian Lightner confronted 26-year-old Andrew Joel Hunt on the Spring Street bridge on Aug. 18 over an argument that several homeless people were having while standing in the road.

Hunt admitted that he had been drinking. And when he refused to leave, Lightner arrested him.

After getting out of jail, Hunt complained that Lightner had tossed his backpack off the bridge, including a laptop with the only photos he owned of his dead wife.

The Charleston Police Department eventually agreed to an undisclosed settlement with Hunt after the dive team recovered his belongings.

Brendan Doneghy, who was representing Hunt on the public intoxication and disorderly conduct charges, told The Charleston Gazette that he found it strange at the time that the police department would file a motion to drop the charges without an explanation.

“I received a dismissal out of nowhere,” Doneghy recalled. “It made me suspicious the allegations [against Lightner] were true.”

For his part, Lightner called dealing with homeless people a “frustrating job.”

Dear Officer Lightner,

You are an empathy deficient asshole.

* * * *

“Free speech only goes so far!” says this power tripping NYPD cop.

The interaction started as the citizen saw a private security guard block in a taxi cab for picking up a fare. The citizen filming simply voiced his concern over the security guard detaining the taxi, when he was approached by power tripping officer Butler.

The confrontation becomes heated quickly as the citizen refuses to be bullied by Butler.

Butler tells the man that he cannot say what he wants to and cannot be filming, at which point the man rebuts. That’s when officer Butler chose to stifle the citizen’s first amendment rights, going so far as to tell him that, “Your First Amendment Ends Right Here!”

At one point the two men brush hands as Butler tries to snatch the wallet out of the man’s hand. Butler quickly calls it assault and tells the man filming that he will arrest him for assault on an officer. Eventually a crowd begins to gather as Butler continues his barrage.

After Butler gets the ID and begins writing citations for “obscene language” and “unreasonable sound” one officer tells the man to look at the crowd that’s gathering because of your actions. Then, in an awesome display, the crowd says they are there for the citizen’s protection!

Despite the rantings of one woman who would rather give up her rights than the assert them, the crowd was in total support of this man.

In the background while the ticket is being written, Butler can be hear saying, “free speech only goes so far.”

Eventually the citizen is given the ticket by an obviously flustered and constitutionally oblivious Officer Butler.

How can cops not know by now that citizens have the right to film them?  And those citations are a fucking joke.  “Obscene language”?  Are the cops going to start policing what we say?  I guess he does truly think freedom of speech should be curtailed.  Police State anyone?

Here’s the video:

{advertisement}
Police Behaving Badly 11.12.14
{advertisement}