police officer

Iowa state Rep. Clel Baudler predicted that potential protestors at his caucus site in Adair County should expect a response that "will be swift and it will be sure."

"Since I'm not a state trooper anymore, they probably won't be handcuffed - but I have friends," Baudler said. "If an officer asks for help, I will help, believe me."

"We're just not going to tolerate in rural Iowa what's going on in the big metropolitan areas," Baudler said. "A little thump therapy never hurt anybody."

(emphasis added)

Thump therapy? That sounds an awful like a threat of violence against any protesters. And reading his statement sounds like he is threatening any one who dares protest - peaceful or otherwise.

I'm sure when he took office and even when he became a police officer that he raised a hand and swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States, which reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

At a townhall in Cincinnati, Republican Congressman Steve Chabot decided that people should not be allowed to videotape the event and had a police officer seize the camera of citizens recording the public event of a public figure inside of a public building:

What is even worse is the excuse given by Chabot's spokesman:

Schwartz said that sometimes at the town hall meetings, citizens ask questions about their own personal situations and the Chabot staff did not want them videotaped. The media cameras were allowed to continue to roll, Schwartz said, “because they can be expected to respect people’s privacy.”

They are asking questions at a public townhall and they are pulling the privacy card. How stupid does Chabot's people think we are?

This has to be one of the saddest periods in American history. We have a major political party hellbent on turning us into the Soviet States of America. We can't video public events of public figures. We even have Republicans charging to talk to them now, and this is a Republican who the right was pushing to run for President!

This time we go to the “law professor”, Ann Althouse:

Are the men in the T-shirts also from Moveon.org? Who were they? There were no arrests and though there was a crowd, no one bothered to have detained these men. Did they just melt back into the night? It's very convenient that these bad actors were wearing labels identifying them.

Apparently Ann missed the part where on of the assailants has already been identified, and there are unconfirmed reports that he has now been detained.

But back to Ann:

This is getting beyond absurd:

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 all parties must consent for a recording to be legal unless, as with TV news crews, it is obvious to all that recording is underway. Since the police do not consent, the camera-wielder can be arrested. Most all-party-consent states also include an exception for recording in public places where "no expectation of privacy exists" (Illinois does not) but in practice this exception is not being recognized.

So what about traffic cameras, or the cameras in ATM's, or how about security cameras in homes and businesses that can catch action outside their property? This country really needs to get the proverbiale bug out of its ass.

There has been a lot of talk about Justin Barrett, a police officer with Boston. He made fame yesterday when it was exposed that he wrote a letter to the media and referred to Henry Gates as a “banana eating jungle monkey'”. if you missed it, here’s the run down:

The law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Officer Justin Barrett referred to the black scholar as a " jungle monkey" in the letter, written in reaction to media coverage of Gates's arrest July 16.

Barrett, a 36-year-old who has been on the job for two years, was stripped of his gun and badge yesterday and faces a termination hearing in the next week, said police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll. He has no previous disciplinary record, she said.

Barrett will be represented by the police union in his hearing, as he should be. This gets into a very iffy area of our first amendment rights. One way he may have stripped himself of that protection though is by identifying himself as a police officer in his “anonymous” email.

But there is something more interesting here. In Barrett’s letter he made a statement that should be a warning sign that a person does not understand the very fundamental’s of our nation’s laws:

No shit! A man was charged for battery of a police officer when he farted and waved it towards the cop. Talk about busting the serious criminals.

Rather interesting happenings at tonight's debate:

Columnist and author Eric Alterman was arrested Sunday night inside the debate spin room and charged with criminal trespass after police say he refused repeated orders to leave.

Goffstown, N.H. police say Alterman was in the spin room as a guest of the Creative Coalition and went to an area reserved for a private reception for WMUR-TV. Police say he was asked by an executive at the party if he was invited to the private area and was asked to leave. A police officer was called after a verbal altercation ensued. He was asked by police seven times to leave, and police say he became increasingly loud as he refused. After ignoring a final request, police say he was handcuffed and taken from the building. He is charged with criminal trespass, and a bail commissioner will determine if he will be released.

Alterman writes a column for “The Nation” and writes the “Altercation” blog for Media Matters. He also has authored several books, including “Why Presidents Lie.”

I can't wait to hear the entire story on this one.

UPDATE

Eric has posted his account of what happened over at Atrios. It sounds like CNN has some corrections to do on this story.

This was reported on Wednesday. I was planning on posting about it and totally forgot. Luckily Larry Johnson didn't forget. Now the time is appropriate to read:

Metropolitan Police today charged the director of human resources at The Washington Times with one count of attempting to entice a minor on the Internet.

Randall Casseday, 53, was arrested at 9:45 p.m. yesterday in the 1300 block of Brentwood Road NE, where police said he had arranged to meet who he thought was a 13-year-old girl. He had actually exchanged Internet messages and photographs with a male police officer posing as a girl.

That's right. The day before ABC broke the Foley story, the director of human resources for the ultra-conservative Washington Times was arrested for trying to meet a 13 year old girl that he had chatted with on the internet. If ABC had not broke the Foley story, then we could be reading the same thing about him. Sadly though he was not talking to police officers online like Mr. Casseday - he was actually talking to under age boys. That means if he did try to arrange a meeting then it would not have ended as good as this story did.

And the Republican leadership chose to ignore this!