The Beltway Outsider

From Universal Hub:

A Boston lawyer suing the city and police officers who arrested him for using his cell phone to record a drug arrest on the Common won a victory today when a federal appeals court said the officers could not claim “qualified immunity” because they were performing their job when they arrested him under a state law that bars audio recordings without the consent of both parties.

This will be an interesting case to watch. Police have used some creative charges to stop citizen journalists from recording their behavior and thus holding them accountable for their interactions with the public. The current trend points toward these citizen recordings being legal as long as the citizen stays far enough away as to not be impeding the arrest or investigation. Read the opinion here: http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/10-1764P-01A.pdf

To: Mark Seagraves, WTOP reporter (msegraves @ wtop.com)

Mark,

In reference to your story here: http://wtop.com/?nid=109&sid=2514785

I have a quick pop quiz:

1: If you or I were caught in D.C. with an unauthorized, unregistered firearm, what would be the charge?

2: If you or I fired that handgun (in D.C., while drunk 0.15 BAC) into a car with 3 occupants, what would be the charge?

3: Does shooting at transgendered citizens also constitute a “hate crime”?

The answers should be you would be charged with one count Carrying a Pistol Without a License, in violation of D.C. Code § 22-4504(a) (2001); one count of Possession of an Unregistered Firearm, in violation of D.C. Code § 7-2502.01 (2001); one count of Possession of Unregistered Ammunition, in violation of  D.C. Code § 7-2506.01(3) (2001)  and multiple premeditated murder charges, one for every occupant in the vehicle  (in addition to DWI). But, when you are a cop working for the second most corrupt police force in the nation (after Chicago), and you have been specifically told you no longer have authorization to carry a gun in performance of your duties (this includes non-duty hours too) I guess it’s OK to get drunk, drive around town with your gun, and find some transgender folks to shoot at while drunk and standing on the hood of your car (a full 90 minutes after an altercation at CVS, that’s where the “premeditated murder” part comes in, Furr had to be out looking for these folks). You won’t be held fully accountable for your drunken attempted murder spree, at most you’ll be slapped with DWI and assault with a dangerous weapon charge. This is Lanier’s new management plan of “training trumps discipline“. Not being held fully accountable.

Some might say the cop shouldn’t be charged with the firearms charges, but once you lose the special police powers to carry a gun in D.C. you are no longer exempt from the same laws everyone else must follow. If you are not allowed to carry in the performance of your duties then any and all firearms and ammunition you possess outside the home in D.C. would NOT be legal, yes?

Mark, are you planning to follow up with DCMP to ask why this cop is receiving special treatment when you and I both know that someone NOT wearing a badge would also have these charges levied at them if they had done the same crime? Inquiring minds want to know!

Sincerely,

Ian Branson

Vienna, VA

Read: Lanier – Training trumps discipline for D.C. police

That’s what Chief Wiggums, err, I mean DC Metro POLICE Chief Lanier fetishizes when describing her POLICE department. She thinks her corrupt co-workers are a “paramilitary” force, HA! Let’s get one thing straight Cathy: your cadre of contemptible criminals you call cops (you know, the “Only Ones” in DC good enough and trusted enough to carry a firearm in self-defense) are not some elite seal team force protecting the streets of the capital. I’ve seen more police officers abuse the badge and authority in DC than any other place. That is if you can even get them to do their job when asked or arrest a criminal. Your department is a sad JOKE and you are the leader of this fail train. You even admit you don’t believe in administering discipline when your “paramilitary” coworkers get out of line. Shame on you, you’re a sad excuse for a cop, and an even worse example of a leader. You got your job under Marion Barry’s tenure, didn’t ya?

The man who wrote the Declaration of Independence must be turning in his grave at this moment. See, a few folks showed up at his monument in D.C and proceeded to conduct themselves in an inappropriate way. What was the indecency involved here? Well, a bit of dancing, hugging, and kissing. OMG!! Who knew that acting in a peaceful way could lead to violent behavior and arrests on account of the “Only Ones” who defend TJ’s memorial? See the video below:

After being tortured with a “nonlethal” Taser…

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/04/22/florida.suspect.dead/index.html

Oh my ohhhhh my. I’ve always felt that tasers, tools which emit THOUSANDS of volts of electrical energy which impair motor functions of those unlucky enough to have one used on them… should NOT be regularly used by professional police forces in any Western style democracy which claims to respect the rule of law and citizens rights. (I still support their use only in situations where a firearm would be proper to deploy) The original intent behind tazers was to offer police a tool which was supposed to be “safe” and billed as an alternative to deadly force (firing a handgun). Tasers were only to be used when deadly force was authorized. In the years since introduction, more and more officers have started carrying tasers and their scope of use has expanded so they may be justified in using these tools any time they (the officers) feel their authority is not being respected. We’ve all heard stories about drivers being tased for not complying with police instructions during traffic stops. Does anyone also feel the use of a firearm would be justified in those situations? Not hardly! So, why is it now SOP for an officer to tase a citizen for disobedience or simple resistance (not cooperating)? The use of these devices has simply gotten out of hand, and police conduct review boards see no issue with overboard cops unloading several thousand volts into disrespectful citizens. Here we have a story from Courthouse News Service where a grandmother who is old and bedridden couldn’t remember the last time she took her meds when her grandson asked the question. Not satisfied with the response the grandson called 911 and asked for an EMT to come and evaluate her.

Lonnie Tinsley claims that he called 911 after he went to check on his grandmother, whom he found in her bed, “connected to a portable oxygen concentrator with a long hose.” She is “in marginal health, [and] takes several prescribed medications daily,” and “was unable to tell him exactly when she had taken her meds,” so, Tinsley says, he called 911 “to ask for an emergency medical technician to come to her apartment to evaluate her.”
In response, “as many as ten El Reno police” officers “pushed their way through the door,” according to the complaint.

Instead several cops arrived and not surprisingly the grandmother was not happy to see armed agents of the government in her house without permission. She yelled for the police to get out of her apartment and was tased in her bed (while hooked up to highly combustible oxygen) for her act of defiance. That’s right, they tased a bedridden 87 year old woman in her bed who posed no threat to them, and they shouldn’t have been there in the first place. And how did these cowards justify their actions? They actually claimed the bedridden woman has taken an “aggressive stance” in her bed, whatever that means. Latest news shows the woman is suing the town for their assault that day.

These assaults on citizens are growing more common every day. Until we as a nation demand strict policies concerning their use we can expect rogue police officers and conduct review boards to continue approving employing them in barbaric ways when their commands are not complied with immediately. This folks is the beginning of a police state, where compliance is mandatory and passive resistance is met with painful electrical force which depending on the health of the citizen attacked can (and has) had deadly consequences.

Further reading on tasers and the cowards who use them…

From NBC-4:

The investigation of a D.C. police detective (AKA an “Only One”) accused of pulling his gun during a December snowball fight is complete, and it looks like the detective will go back to work.

Watch the video below for the original incident. Take note of the attitude this public servant displays when the public demands his identification so a complaint can be made. He feels he should be able to anonymously threaten unarmed citizens with his handgun because his Hummer got a little snow on it, but you and I are kept defenseless against the criminal element in the same city.

And I do have one question for Chief Lanier: When are you going to charge Detective Baylor with reckless endangerment, brandishing, impeding traffic, etc? Or is “professional courtesy” being extended here?

Teri Christoph, executive director of Smart Girl Politics attempts to ask Gerry Connolly for his stance on health care reform. She’s stopped by douchebag extraordinaire George Burke who attempts to tell her that filming ist verboten and she needs to apply for a press pass. Huh? Teri is a citizen, not a member of the press.

Things get worse when Connolly attempts to have a different constituent (not Teri) arrested!

Connolly left his office about an hour or so ago, and a small woman, about 4′ 8″ touched his arm, trying to get his attention long enough to say a few words to him as he tried to flee. Connolly then reacts like he’s been bitten by a snake, and starts ranting on to her that what she did was assault him, that assault is a felony, and he is going to have this woman, who couldn’t have weighed more than 110 pounds ARRESTED. Connolly then charges down the hall yelling to the capitol police, WHO THEN TAKE CONNOLLY’S CONSTITUENT INTO CUSTODY. The police talk to this woman for about two minutes, and people in the crowd who witnessed this event give their take on this. The woman is then released, and allowed back in the line to fill out a form where she can express her opinion.

Further reading on this topic:

http://www.bvbl.net/index.php/2009/11/05/breaking-gerry-connolly-tries-to-get-constituent-arrested/

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Congressional-staffer-denies-pushing-visitor-69326747.html

http://townhall.com/blog/g/25e06ac0-1eff-4af0-b823-7509538c3656

Lots of stuff keeping me busy tonight and this weekend. I hope to have an update concerning a Deeds “meet and greet” fundraiser in NoVA in a few days. Prime opportunity to ask him why he’s allowing emotion to dictate his views on closing the non existent “gunshow loophole”. Chap Petersen will be there too and I’ll be asking him to sponsor a bill next year that removes the provision in VA code which allows LEO cars to travel in HOV lanes with no additional passengers, even when they are commuting home and not on official business.

I moved to Northern Virginia in 2003, and I one thing that has been constant since my arrival is the slow death of  Springfield Mall , currently owned by Vornado Realty Trust . When I first visited the mall it had almost all of its available space leased to retail tenants (which is good). But it was dirty, smelly, and not pleasant to walk around in. For some reason the trash dumpsters for the food court were placed next to two major entrances and they smelled of horrible rotting waste, especially during the summer when outside temps easily reached 100 degrees daily. The retail stores were decent, but I could not understand why mall management was allowing its image to be ruined by bad smells and dirty appearance. Fast forward several years to present day. The mall is a skeleton of its old self, half the retail stores are vacant, and it looks even dumpier than before. Supposedly the reason for the decline in retail stores are  renovations at the mall and Vornado needed the tenants to leave so their space could be redone (the leases were not renewed). Vornado even sought approval for demolition of certain areas of the mall for the renovation work, this link will show all zoning and construction requests for the mall. The current news is Vornado wishes to change Springfield Mall into a “town center” style property, kind of like Reston has done.

But why is Springfield Mall such a hotbed for criminal activity? And why is that criminal activity so serious in nature, ranging from armed robbery, muggings, kidnappings, shootings, and frequent deaths? Part of the answer lies in the fact that the mall is located about 1/2 mile from the Springfield Metro station. Thugs and criminals from other parts of the DC metro area ride the trains to Springfield to commit serious crime in a place where their victims are likely to be unarmed and defenseless (more on that later). Looking at the police reports and news stories for several years you will see that almost all of the suspects who have been captured and convicted committing serious crimes in the Springfield Mall area are from Maryland and the areas served by the Green Line of the Metro system. The Metro is their conveyance to come to more affluent areas in Virginia to rob, mug, carjack and sometimes kill victims who are more well-to-do than victims in their own areas might be.

Also, the victims have one less protection: by Springfield Mall’s very own “Rules of Conduct”, visitors to the mall agree to disarm themselves of weapons, even if legal to carry them unless they are an “Only One“. What’s an Only One you might ask? See the bottom of this post for an explanation. So, the mall disarms law abiding customers by rules and codes of conduct, and cannot or will not protect its disarmed customers once outside in the parking lots and garages. Yes, you can ask for a security escort out to your car, but what good will Springfield Mall’s unarmed security guard do to protect you from a thug with a handgun? The unarmed mall guard is simply a speed bump to be dealt with as efficiently as possible on the criminals path to you, his ultimate victim.

So, what’s the point to this post? First, I want everyone reading this to be well aware that Springfield Mall is not a safe place. If you shop there you’re literally risking your life. And Springfield Mall doesn’t care about your right to defend yourself. Second, I call on everyone who takes this sort of thing seriously to boycott Springfield Mall until they reverse position on lawful self defense and concealed carry of handguns on their property. If you feel compelled to tell Springfield Mall why you won’t be spending money there here is their contact info.

What are “Only Ones”?