Police Intimidation In Onalaska, WI - Officers Danou and Kobishop

Recently in Onalaska, Wisconsin Officer Danou and Officer Kobishop dealt out some standard police issue, intimidation. Going into single women's homes, threatening to arrest everyone in the home. They dragged out several visitors to the home in handcuffs. This was all done in public view while very scared children watched their parents being harassed and called liars. According to Anjie of Wisconsin, this was done on multiple occasions.

Stanislaus County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Galvin Charged With Rape and Embezzlement

Michael Galvan, 29, was arrested on suspicion of felony counts of embezzlement by a public officer, misappropriation of lost property and grand theft. Galvan worked for the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department for five years. Police said the arrest came after the sheriff's department was notified that money turned over by a citizen to Galvan was allegedly never properly booked into the department's property and evidence room. Galvan has been placed on administrative leave.

Roast A Pig - Ceres Police Intimidation

Officer Venn from the Ceres Police Dept, tried to plant drugs in my SUV on 7-5-06. On 12-24-05 He illegally entered and searched my home along with Officer Moore and Sargeant Vierra on a false police call and false police report that my brothers girlfriend made up. I was at my friends house early in the day and gone for two hours. When the officers entered my home illegally they asked my daughter dumb personal questions, that only an idiot of an officer would ask. Moore was searching without a search warrant but found nothing, so they fabricated a DUI, vandalism and obstructing an officer. Which was all a lie, because at trial they couldn’t back up they’re fabrication so they lost it was 8 not guilty and four guilty, they looked like bunch of idiots at court. My case was dismissed on 6-30-06 and the judge issued me an abstract for the DMV to get my license reissued, because of the fabrication. So five days later on 7-5-06 they retaliated and drove by my neighborhood and when the officer seen me he flipped a u-turn and turned on his light, followed me to the store and told me that he was going to impound my SUV for driving on a suspended license. I alleged with him about the fabrication and retaliation. It’s been 8 weeks since I haven’t had my SUV and the weird thing about this. Is why didn’t he file it in traffic court like the ticket states a court date on 9-13-06 at 9:30 p.m. So I called to confirm the court date since I haven’t received anything by mail like they normally do 30 days after the incident, but in my case they only impounded my SUV, but no court date filed, is that racism, retaliation or what do you call abuse of police power. Can you please publish this for me and my children.

Thank You,
Stella Martinez and Children

"Don't Tase Me, Bro!"

Just two days after it was yelled out in a University of Florida lecture hall, "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" has become the newest cultural touchstone of our pop-cultural lexicon.



For those of you who've been on vacation on a Greek Island, or are just logging onto your computer from a remote location in China, the incident sparking the worldwide uproar is the Monday arrest and tasering of Andrew Meyer, a University of Florida student.

Meyer barged in line to harangue Massachusetts senator John Kerry during a campus talk that day. The student refused to pipe down after being asked to by the forum's organizers, and after he carried on pressing Kerry for answers, police hauled him off. They forced him to the ground, and tasered him.

Several versions of the incident are up on YouTube, and there's a debate about whether Meyer, known as a prankster, staged the incident in Sacha Baron Cohen-style or not.

Whatever its true nature, the altercation whipped up a tornado of rhetoric that is whirling across forums on the Web, including here at Threat Level.

Policemen, Intensive Care Unit trauma unit nurses ... even concerned individuals on the other side of the planet in Australia -- everyone is weighing in on whether Meyer was acting like an ass, and whether he had it coming to him. The incident has opened up the floodgates of an eye-opening debate over First Amendment rights here in the United States, police brutality and the limits and boundaries of how we as a society should deal with the unruly among us.

Donttase

"This was really sickening to watch. In the video the kid offers to leave and walk out on his own, but instead more and more of those officers try to force him on the ground and into handcuffs.

What a horrible way to handle such a simple situation," writes "Aaron," one of Threat Level's readers.

"The University and its police department should be ashamed of themselves and embarrassed of the way they looked in front of a US Senator. Totally unacceptable," he adds.

Meanwhile, "Nightwatch," who says that he's with a university police department, weighed in and says that he and his colleagues agree that the Florida police handled the situation badly.

Taserprotest_7 And "Jon in Austin" writes that as an intensive care unit trauma nurse, he's concerned about the safety of the devices.

"I am an ICU Trauma Nurse, and I know there have been numerous deaths resulting from the use of the Taser device -- and no one knows who that next victim is going to be! It could be any one of us.

"If we don't stand up against the use of the Taser, who will be next?"

(Taser International says its technology is a "safer use-of-force option" on its web site.)

"I don't believe that asking a question at a town hall meeting, EVEN IF it is long-winded and perhaps even a little combative, should lead to this," writes Jon.

"I think it's foolish to run and flail from the police like that, but I can tell you that this could have been avoided had the police taken him out of the auditorium and explained when and where (or IF?) he broke the law, THEN talk about arrest (but that seems stupid when they could have just kicked him out).

Seems to me, that the real people who caused the disturbance, were the POLICE themselves, who carried it to an entirely absurd and potentially deadly level of risk to this student."

Those wanting to somehow cash in on the notoriety of the phrase, or who perhaps were like cultural tourists wanting to hold onto a keepsake of the moment, went ahead and registered domain names.

Someone by the name of Johannes Feldberg registered donttasemebro.com yesterday, and Alexander Shkirenko, who apparently was chairman of the college Republicans at Georgia Tech a decade ago, registered donttazemebro.com. The list goes on.

Michael Sarfatti in San Francisco grabbed Dontasemebro.com at 1 am this morning as he was listening to a radio show discussing the now infamous incident.

When asked why he bothered, and what he intended to do with it, Sarfatti, the founder of a baby boomer technology-related consulting firm in San Francisco, laughed heartily.

"I'm not sure why I did it -- other than it's going to be an expression in our society for a long time," he says. "I went to [domain name registrar] GoDaddy, and there was a whole bunch of people who had already registered various versions of it -- I was actually surprised to get it."

"I think it's a hilarious expression -- it's a classic phrase," he adds. "It's such a brilliant line -- to be honest, I think it was a set-up, but it was a brilliant ploy. I'd hire that guy in a heartbeat if indeed it was."

Asked how anybody could want, or plan to be tasered, Sarfatti implied that it's not an uncommon occurrence. He says that he's heard that there are games that people play that involve tasering each other.

"As an engineer I'm curious [about how that works] but as a human, I think I'll take a pass," he laughed.

Addendum: My question for readers: There's been a lot of debate [see comments section below] about whether Meyer "deserved" to be tasered, or not. But the question in my mind is not whether he would have otherwise received a bullet in his chest (as some of you have suggested he would have.)

The question is whether the use of this new technology is justified. In a world without tasers, he would have just been subdued by the police officers until he surrendered his wrists to be cuffed. The worrying aspect of this incident is the trigger-happiness of the law-enforcement authorities.

Several police officers already had him on the ground -- why did they need to taser him? It's an important question: I think we need to define the limits of what we find acceptable, and what we don't with the uses of relatively new technology, since that is how we formulate policy: On consensus. To our police officer readers: I've never been tasered (I pray that I never will,) so I can't appreciate how extreme of an act it is. It certainly looks extreme. But what if an individual has a heart condition, or any other condition that the taser would have interfered with?

The trigger-happy aspect of this disturbs me since there's been a lot of disquieting news on the subject, recently.

Five Pigs With Tasers Against One 82 Year Old Lady

But that's what happened Oct. 29 when Chicago Police officers went to a West Side home to make a "well-being" check. The officers were responding to a request from the city's Department of Aging.

Apparently, the department had received an anonymous tip that Lillian Fletcher, who has a history of mental illness, was home alone and in need of assistance.

When Fletcher refused to open her door, police were called. Although Fletcher cracked the door, she still refused to let her visitors into the house.

But police officers wouldn't take no for an answer and pushed their way in. Fletcher ran and got the hammer she keeps beside her bed.

"My grandmother is easily confused," her granddaughter, Traci Taylor, said Monday. "She probably didn't know what was going on."

Taylor is one of her grandmother's caregivers. She said her grandmother has schizophrenia and dementia.

Normally Fletcher is looked after by a homemaker or by her own daughter and Taylor. Only recently did these women find themselves between homemakers.

"She can be belligerent," Taylor said. But she's 82 years old, 5 feet 1 inch and weighs no more than 160 pounds, she added.

"I just don't think they should be Tasing 82-year-old women. That's ridiculous."

Medical marijuana protest in Modesto

The corrupt Modesto Police Department tried for months to have this Marijuana Dispensary closed down. There were many city council meetings where the community made it clear that they did not want that to happen. Once the MPD realized that the citizen's in this area were not going to let them violate there rights under California Law, the MPD decided to whine to federal agencies. Unfortunately this crybaby tactic worked. The FBI and DEA came in to steal all of the Medical Marijuana and all of the people's money that where involved with dispensary.

Using coercive methods, police extracted a false confession.

It started on February 20, 1997. Two Modesto police officers yanked Michael, then a 16-year old junior, from his second period class for questioning in a gang-related shooting. School officials cooperated fully with the police and did nothing to intercede on Michael’s behalf. Michael was subjected to hours of threats from the police right at his school. What took place at the school sent Michael to jail for a year.

Officers Al Brocchini and Detective Nick Chilles arrived at the high school and took Michael down to the attendance office where they interrogated him relentlessly. They wanted information on a burglary and subsequent shooting. Michael didn’t have any information for them; he claims he wasn’t there. But police kept after him, threatening and making promises throughout the entire morning.

Michael wanted the session to end. The police told him repeatedly that he would not be prosecuted as long as he cooperated with them and provided information about other gang members who were involved in the burglary and shooting. They told him that even if he was the shooter, he would not be booked. And they said that if he didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear, he would be sent to jail.

Worn down and confused, Michael told them what they wanted to hear. He made a false confession. The police put words into his mouth. In reviewing the 169-page transcript, an expert on police interrogations called the statement "grossly" coercive.

Then, true to their word, the cops took him home. When he got there, Michael explained the false confession to his father. The father called the police and said that his son had lied. The police responded by returning and arresting Michael for lying. He was then charged with 11 counts of attempted murder and remained incarcerated for the next year.

During that time Michael recanted his confession. The police, using their coercive methods once again, were able to extract statements from two other youths who claimed that Michael was involved. Michael ultimately took a lie detector test which showed that he was not involved in the burglary and shooting.

When Michael was first arrested, he was placed in juvenile hall. Inmates cannot post bail to get released from juvenile hall. When it was later determined that he would be tried as an adult, he was transferred to the men’s jail and bail was posted at $250,000. This amount was too high for Michael’s family to pay. So Michael remained in jail. In order to do his best for his client, Michael’s attorney had to request a number of delays of court appearances and Michael remained in jail.

Finally after Michael had passed two polygraph tests and repeatedly denied that he was involved, a deputy district attorney asked the Superior Court to dismiss the charges for lack of evidence.

Michael is now free. But I cannot imagine what spending a year in an adult jail for a crime he did not commit has done to someone so young. Not only was Michael unfairly punished, police focus on the wrong boy let the real perpetrator to go free.

17-year old killed by drug dealers as retribution for being a police informant.

It all started on January 6 when Chad was pulled over for a traffic stop by Brea police in southern California. Officers found a half ounce of methamphetamine in his truck. Chad was taken to the Brea police station and questioned for several hours. When his mother (Chad’s father died when he was an infant) arrived, she found that Chad had been crying for a long time; his face was badly swollen with tears.

Police told his mother that she could not take him home unless she signed a waiver allowing Chad to become an informant for the police. If she didn’t, Chad would face serious jail time. They told Mrs. Mac Donald that the drug charges would be dropped in exchange for Chad’s work as an informant. The mother agreed to sign the waiver and in so doing doing agreed to something she could not fully understand.

Chad worked with the police in at least two drug arrests. But soon, Ms. MacDonald realized that Chad was being pressured by the police to participate in larger and larger drug buys. Concerned that Chad was becoming involved in something quite dangerous, Ms. MacDonald called the district attorney’s office in an effort to end the arrangement. But the police pressure did not stop; they continued to pressure Chad to participate in bigger buys in exchange for dropping all charges. To hammer this home, the DA’s office filed charges against Chad for possessing and transporting methamphetamine.

Chad, feeling under tremendous pressure, set off to score a really big buy so the charges would be dropped. On his own initiative, Chad went to make a drug buy at a house in a nearby town that was well-known for drug and gang activity.

It appears that when the gang later learned that Chad was an informant, they kidnapped Chad and his girlfriend; both were both tortured and strangled. The girlfriend somehow survived and was found in Angeles National Forest. Chad was found dead in an alley in south Los Angeles.

Thoughtless, aggressive cops exploited Chad to beef up their arrest statistics. The police and the district attorney’s office treated Chad in a reckless manner which directly led to his death and endangered the lives of others. They showed no concern for the danger they were putting Chad in and are now busy covering up their actions.

Modesto Police ABC Out of Control Downtown

MPD Out of Control Downtown…

Many people don’t know that the California State ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control) has been giving the City of Modesto a grant to enforce their rules in the City of Modesto for the past three years. This grant also empowers MPD officers to become pseudo ABC agents and allows them to enforce all ABC rules. Since the grant was given MPD is on the offensive harassing businesses and causing havoc with people’s livelihoods. Just in downtown Modesto MPD has busted Tresetti’s, Barking Dog, Taiwan Restaurant, Tokyo Empress, Sharkey’s Crab Shack, Fat Cat, Dewz, 1505, Minnie’s, and those are just the ones that I know of. There almost isn’t one business that they haven’t written up for one reason or another in the downtown area.

Cops harassing teens, Patterson parents say

PATTERSON — Sheriff's deputies routinely are intimidating and harassing teenagers here, often without reason, claim some parents who want the city to take action on what they consider a persistent trend.

"I know they have a hard job. But with all the community members talking about this, something is not quite right. We want to make it right and work with them to resolve this issue," Patterson resident Violet Wells said.

Wells was among a handful of residents who raised concerns about harassment at last week's City Council meeting, citing specific incidents. They asked for the issue to be placed on a future council agenda for discussion.

Patterson contracts with the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department for police services. Sheriff Adam Christianson said no official complaints have been filed in Patterson, but the department is investigating the allegations.

Police Chief Tyrone Spencer, who has worked in Patterson since 1981, heard the complaints at the council meeting. Spencer did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Albertina Reynoso, a mother of three, said her 15-year-old son and two of his friends recently were talking outside a neighbor's home on North Second Street when a deputy pulled up.

The deputy allegedly told her son, who was wearing red Patterson High School gym shorts, that he was "on the wrong side of town," Reynoso said.

The color red is associated with members of Norteño gangs; the Sureño gangs favor blue.

The deputy left and then returned a few minutes later with two other deputies, she said. They told the teenagers to sit down on the ground, and recorded their names and other identifying information, Reynoso said.

Wells relayed a similar story. Her 15-year-old son was playing basketball with a group of friends when they were approached by a deputy searching for a missing child, she said.

What began as a lighthearted conversation turned to "intimidation," Wells said, when the deputy stopped smiling, unsnapped something from his belt and repeated a question about the age of one of the youths.

"He unsnapped something, like mace or a gun. He said, 'I'm going to ask you one more time.' He was intimidating them," Wells said.