Increased Gas Prices Disrupting Police Service in South Carolina
The level of police service city dwellers, and especially suburbanites, come to expect is largely dependent on cheap gas to get cops to you and keep patrols on the streets. The relatively minor increases we’ve already seen here (and the prices will go up much higher) already has police departments scrambling to keep cruisers on the streets. In some cases they simply can’t.
Prepare yourself. Bad neighborhoods are going to get worse as criminals learn that this resource crunch limits the ability of police to effectively respond to crime. Areas where budgets are tight are going to put less patrol cars on the streets, which will open the window for more crime. As the disabled police force is forced to decide which crimes their cruisers will attend first, small time non-violent crimes will increase as thieves learn that on any given night they have ample time to get away before police can respond.
Officers Cleared in Andrew Torres’ Death
I won’t dwell on this because the death was a tragedy, but as I said before the police did nothing wrong. An investigation determined that Torres’ had an enlarged heart which contributed to his death.
Some local groups were trying to use the death of Torres to push an anti-cop agenda, while others were using the death to raise money for a certain group who will remain nameless. Both should be ashamed. This tragedy not a crime.
How to Look Like a Dirty Cop in One Easy Step
So you’re on a gang task force and you would like to make the public trust you just a bit less and maybe get an easier assignment, but you don’t want to do anything that loses you your fat pension. What you need to do is make it look like you’re on the take without giving those rat bastards at IA anything solid to jam you up with. Quite a conundrum – unless you’re in the LAPD:
LOS ANGELES – Dozens of anti-gang police officers across the city are quitting their assignments over a requirement to reveal personal financial information under strict anti-corruption rules, The Associated Press has learned.
Gang units in some of the city’s most violent neighborhoods are being left with multiple vacancies, with officers choosing instead to work regular patrol shifts, Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger said Monday.
One of the areas most affected is the city’s northeast division, which includes territory controlled by the notorious Avenues gang around Highland Park. Rather than fill in financial disclosure forms, most of the division’s anti-gang unit has decided to leave and return to patrol, resulting in an unspecified number of vacancies.
Paysinger and other police officials stressed the reassignments would not affect public safety. The former gang officers — along with their street smarts and gang expertise — would remain in the neighborhoods they had long served.
[...]
The deadline for officers to sign the LAPD’s financial disclosure forms is the end of March but many officers are letting their superiors know ahead of time that they are declining.
The rules were mandated by the U.S. Department of Justice after a scandal in the late 1990s involving misconduct by anti-gang officers from LAPD’s Rampart division.
The rules require gang and narcotics officers to reveal portions of their personal financial records to the department and are supposed to snare corrupt officers in units frequently handling cash or drugs.
The police officers’ union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, has long faulted the requirements, saying they are onerous and sap morale, among other criticisms.
Yeah, it’s “onerous” to prove you’re not stealing drugs and cash. There’s a reason the LAPD has a bad reputation, and you’re looking at it.
Man Impersonating Cop Rapes Woman
This case reminds us to always check the credentials of someone claiming to be a cop. And if someone pulls you over and they aren’t armed the what cops usually are or the uniform looks iffy get out of there.
From Fox Carolina:
GREENVILLE, S.C. — The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office is asking the public to help find a man who impersonated an officer and sexually assaulted a woman.
Investigator Tina Adams told FOX Carolina that on Dec. 10, the victim was traveling near Cherrydale on Poinsette Highway and was heading toward Greenville when she saw flashing blue lights behind her.
Adams said the woman pulled into the median and was approached by a man who appeared to be a deputy. The victim gave the man her driver’s license, and he then returned to his car, Adams said.
Adams said the man then returned to the window and told the victim her license was suspended. He then obtained permission to search her car, Adams said.
According to Adams, the man then placed handcuffs on the victim, led her to the rear of her vehicle, opened her trunk, lifted her dress and sexually assaulted her. The man then released the victim and sped off toward Greenville, Adams said.
Adams said the man was in a dark-colored sedan that had blue lights and looked much like an unmarked police vehicle.
The attacker is described as a white man with a tanned, olive complexion, possibly with short brown hair and brown eyes. The victim said the hairstyle and complexion reminded her of an Italian man, according to Adams.
At the time of the assault, he was wearing a dark blue or black uniform, including a short-sleeved shirt with military-style achievement ribbons on the left breast where a badge would normally sit, Adams said. An unknown badge was attached to his belt, and he carried a baton, Adams said.
An internal investigation determined that the assailant was indeed not a deputy and frankly the uniform description sounds more like a security guard than a cop. The “military-style achievement ribbons” sounds like he’s an armchair commando so I’m sure cops are checking Army-Navy stores and antique malls where militaria is sold.
Something they should probably teach you in high school is how local cops look. Cops in uniform don’t have their badges on their belt where I come from though I have personally run into few cops since I moved here. But cops have guns – if someone tells you they’re a cop and they’re wearing a uniform with no gun you need to pepper spray them and leave.
Memorize the above sketch and keep your eyes open. If you see this guy call Greenville Crime Stoppers at 23-CRIME.
Perverts Outraged as South Carolina Moves to make “Sexting” a Crime
Alex Knepper hardest hit! Even though it’s a bill put forward by the historically thug hugging Democrats I’m on board wit this one. A prefiled bill makes teen sexting a crime, but a civil one instead of criminal:
Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, one of the co-sponsors of the bill, says there are several reasons he, Sen. Mike Fair of Greenville and Sen. Darrell Jackson of Columbia prefiled the bill.
First, he hopes it will help prevent some teens from sexting. “You want to use it as a tool to educate young people about what’s appropriate and what’s not. And I think a lot of them don’t realize how a potential stigma could arise from this that could follow you,” he says.
Second, it allows teens engaged in sexting to be held accountable without potentially ruining their lives. In states that have no law against sexting, teens found with cell phones containing nude photos of minors can be charged with possession and/or distribution of child pornography, a serious felony.
The prefiled bill would make sexting a civil case, with penalties of a $100 fine and/or requiring the teen to complete an educational program on the dangers of sexting. If the teen doesn’t pay the fine or complete the educational program, his driver’s license could be suspended for 90 days. The crime also would not give the teen a criminal record or force him to register as a sex offender, unlike a child pornography charge.
And third, Sen. Hutto thinks just prefiling the bill will give parents a good reason to talk to their teens about sexting and its dangers. “When people see your story, the mom may get the daughter in and say, ‘Look what the legislature is talking about doing. You know, I’ve told you before to be careful what you text and email and send to your friends and now if you do this you’re subjecting yourself to a fine.’”
As for how it would be enforced, if it becomes law, Sen. Hutto says cases would likely come up through complaints by parents or from teachers or school resource officers who see or hear about it.
The educational course violators would have to take would include teaching the teens about the consequences of sexting, things they probably never considered. Sen. Hutto says an explicit photo that may have been meant for a teen girl’s boyfriend could end up being forwarded to other people and even make it onto the Internet. The girl could then end up with a stalker who saw her photo online.
Sounds good to me. Many a pervert argues that sex offender registries are “unfair” because some teen may end up on it for sexting and this bill solves that matter. As long as adults found hording these pictures are still charged with child porn I’m happy.
I’d suggest though that the “education” portion of the punishment include telling the kids that skeevy perverts were jerking it to their image even now, and that this how people see you when you start sending nude pictures of yourself in your parents bathroom to random people:
Speaking of parents, if your kid is getting naked and making amateur porn when their still under 18 you need to take some parenting classes.