Long Beach Cops Are Repulsive Felons

One wonders what is wrong with these people. Consent degree and police reform?

Try throwing these thugs into prison for a decade.

Authority and Liberty

Update: "Blacks -- in particular, black men -- swap their experiences of police encounters like war stories." - Henry Louis Gates in the New Yorker (1995); from Liberal Cambridge Reflects on Racial Rift (Krissah Thompson and Cheryl W. Thompson) -

You, the reader—veteran, police, Marine, civilian, whatever—this moment are likely criminally responsible for breaking the law.

Be it federal, state, or municipal, you are criminally indictable for violating criminal statutes.

“With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone,” said Robert H. Jackson.

That was in 1941.

It’s fair to say the sphere of unlawful behavior has expanded immensely since then.

In this reality, we should expect police officers and prosecutors at all levels of government to exercise a measure of discretion, intelligence, and empathy in dealing their fellow citizens, their fellow human beings.

Recent events reconfirm that even approaching this imperative is elusive. The last thing we should do as a society is deprive another of liberty. Only when there is no other way should we resort to this drastic action.

As seen in the actions of Crawley of the Cambridge Police Department or Dalma of the Madison Police Dept [Cambridge and Madison are surely among America' most liberal places with a deep tradition of working for civil rights], too many police, prosecutors, and other politicians seem determined to reject the sage advice of Robert Jackson and are hostile to liberty.

Take Crawley. Does he really not understand why accosting a black man arriving back to his own home would illicit indignation and anger? Welcome home, Prof. Gates.

Apparently not, Crawley just needs to arrest somebody who challenges his imperial vision of himself.

I have a lot of dealings with real police and military veterans through family and friends. And this type of cop or military officer as Crawley is universally reviled; Crawley’s a scumbag seeking out ass-kissers.

Here’s an example of discretion.

A couple summers back, my girlfriend was driving to her sister’s house to dog-sit and house-sit for two weeks. Jackie told me being alone in the house scared her at night, even with the dogs and wonderful neighbors. There had been several break-ins in the vicinity, with one right next door just the week before.

Ten minutes after Jackie left our apartment, she called and said some man was following her in a large black truck as she serpentined through numerous turns to get to her sister’s house. Then as she pulled into the driveway, the guy parked right in front of the house, blocking the driveway.

Jackie was still in her car as she spoke, “Come over right NOW.” It was already dark out, and Jackie was too frightened to walk from her car to the front porch with the man sitting in his vehicle staring at her.

I understood. I drove over fast full of adrenaline and slowly came up behind the car, wrote down the license plate numbers, flipped my brights on and off, got out of my car and walked briskly over to ask the guy what he thought he was doing.

The guy took off, very fast for this neighborhood where 25 mph mean 25 mph because of the number of children usually around.

We called the cops, and this Marine veteran dude came and talked to Jackie and me. We explained the situation and gave the officer the guy’s plates. Jackie thought the guy might have been objecting to her “Out of Iraq Now” and “Peace” bumper stickers since this had happened quite a few times before, but usually not this aggressively. I thought that, 'maybe the guy was just pulling over to make a phone call or to smoke a joint,' and said so to the cop. He nodded and said he couldn't say that, but that I could as the boyfriend.

The cop came back later and asked if we knew the guy in the black truck – he gave us a name and general address. Neither of us recognized the name.

The cop told us the guy in the truck didn’t have any record, didn’t seem to be dangerous, and would not bother us any more. The officer also asked if there was anything Jackie could have done to provoke the man’s actions – like cutting him off in traffic or doing anything that could have been perceived as threatening. She didn’t think so and reiterated that she had had trouble with what some people perceived to be “unpatriotic” bumper stickers. [Shit doesn’t happen when I drive her car I feel the need to add.]

The police officer assured us that after he spoke to the guy, the last place the guy would go to is the address my girlfriend was staying. The officer also would his keep an eye out on the house during the next two weeks while on patrol.

With the police officer’s assurances that he didn’t think the fellow was dangerous, I left. No charges were filed, and more importantly, Jackie felt that the officer had listened to her complains, and she felt safer for his having been there. It was a good example of how police officers should protect and serve. Everyone’s happy, no arrests. End of story.

Bullying Milwaukee Police Fine 70-Year-Old Widow for Defending Dog

Update: Readers can contact the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (MJS) on this matter at:

Letters to the Editor http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=766191

Milwaukee, Wisconsin—Donna Ganong is a 70-year-old widow running a corner tavern on Milwaukee's near-south side.

In early July, Mrs. Ganong tried to help a crying, hungry dog in an alley, and the Milwaukee police fined her $350 for her trouble.

Located at the corner of 1400 West Orchard Street and South 14th Street, Ganong’s Corner, has seen its share of life, though the neighborhood bar is not much of a blip on the Milwaukee radar screen.

Apparently the people don't matter all that much to the Milwaukee police either.

Mrs. Ganong lost her husband, Ron, and one of her three children; but loves running her bar (she has been in the tavern business for 34 years) and is one of the community's unofficial neighborhood watch leaders—keeping in frequent touch with neighbors about the area's heavy vandalism and crime problems.

Nice woman, right?

Not according to the Milwaukee police and one Officer Baker whose apparent priorities and lack of discretion do discredit to the force.

On the rainy night of July 7th, Mrs. Ganong, an animal lover, heard a dog yelping and crying in the alley adjacent to her tavern.

Investigating, she found a dog, appearing hungry, tied up in the alley, and told a man she believed to be the owner of the dog that he should take the dog inside and feed him.

According to Mrs. Ganong, the man, (described as about six-foot, approximately 160 lbs), refused Ganong’s request, and said not very nice things to her in response to her suggestion, statements allegedly that included "... white bitch."

Nice.

Mrs. Ganong phoned the police, who arrived, and gave both people disorderly conduct tickets, though the man with the dog may have been given a ticket for disturbing the peace, or as Ganong says in a heavy south-side accent, for “cruelty to animals.”

Mrs. Ganong’s ticket described the six-foot man as a "victim," to whom the "subject (Mrs. Ganong) intentionally made threats to cause bodily harm ... causing the victim to flee for their safety."

So, let's see a five-four, 70-year-old woman berates a six-foot man in an alley to take care of his dog, and the cop describes the man as a victim.

"If someone mistreats an animal or a kid, I'm right there. I speak up," said Ganong, though she said that she is not always keen on the idea of walking alone into alleys on summer nights, she just loves dogs.

Apparently, Ganong told the arriving officer to take care of the dog or she would.

This is the “threat” that Officer Baker contends is disorderly conduct.

It gets worse.

Ganong left the alley and went to home, and then heard heavy banging on her door that now has visible dents and looks like it had been smashed.

Apparently, it was the cop banging something against the door that sounded like a nightstick to Ganong. But this 70-year-old woman became scared, refusing to open her door. She had had enough drama for the night.

Not enough for Officer Baker (now there's a real hero) who promptly wrote a second $175 disorderly conduct ticket reading "(Ganong) intentionally obstructed the issuance of a citation by going inside her residence and refusing to talk to police. ..."

Apparently, Officer Baker can't quite comprehend how two men in an alley might intimidate a woman who tried to help a dog in distress.

Ganong's son, Greg, is angry. "I guess the cops think a 70-year-old woman is a real threat," he said bitterly, sipping a beer.

So, Mrs. Ganong, who says the worst thing she has ever done is get a speeding ticket, was cited twice on that July night for disorderly conduct, tickets totaling $350 that Mrs. Ganong is very insistent on challenging at her court date on August 25.

Area homeowners at the bar say their yards are regularly littered and vandalized by often loud patrons walking by after other taverns close blocks away, and that they appreciate the efforts of Ganong and other neighbors keeping their eyes out for each other.

But I can see why they would think twice before calling the police to report anything — when that alert might make them the object of unwelcome and unpleasant police attention. So goes the Milwaukee Police Department's attempts at community relations.

The gregarious Mrs. Ganong always has a story to tell at the bar, and the regulars say she is the "salt of the earth."

Ganong says she is content, though she says there is growing lack of respect among the young people she encounters, and she objects to the direction that she sees her neighborhood going.

But she says not to feel sorry for her; she can take care of herself.

I believe her.

But now, the Milwaukee police have this 70-year-old woman very disappointed, angry, and scared, wondering just whose side the police are on.

A fine of $350 may not seem like a lot of money, but the sense of betrayal that Mrs. Ganong and her customers feel cuts pretty deep.

Mrs. Ganong says anyone from the Milwaukee media who wants to call and talk to her about this incident can call the bar at: (414) 645-3707.