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Posts Tagged ‘Police’

When news surfaced that radical UK cleric Anjem Choudary was going to stage a Shariah4America rally at the White House on Thursday, it’s fair to say many expected some explosive video to surface. Especially considering counter protesters planned rallies, too. Choudary canceled his rally. The counter protesters did not. At least one shocking video still surfaced.

via Liberal Site Tries to Tie Shocking Muslim-Taunting Video to Respected Conservative | The Blaze.

(This is REAL CHRISTIAN HATE.  So-called believers taunting a prayerful Muslim. This particular Muslim visits the White House a few times a week and prays.  He hurts no one.

Along comes a group of religious zealots of another faith and taunts the man by throwing crosses at his feet. Do you think for one minute that after everything Jesus endured on Earth that he would condone or approve of the kind of behavior exhibited yesterday in Washington D.C?

Perhaps you call yourself a Christian. Examine the tenants of your faith and the behaviors your church leaders ask you to emulate to promulgate your faith. Do those behaviors make sense?

As a Catholic, I have been on the receiving end of religious hate. Tracts from an intractable Christian sect placed Catholic hate literature on my car, that was parked in a parking lot where I worked. No one else’s car had the pamphlet. Just my car.  I tore up the pamphlet and called the State Police and discussed the personal insult with my Priest.

In case the hater’s missed it, in the United States of America, the country  was created with the understanding that citizens could worship as they pleased. Whether I believe in your faith or not does not give me the right to treat you badly because of my disagreement.

A suggestion is that whoever these “Christians” were that they refrain from publicly humiliating others and confine their hate to their private prayer.)

WUSA9.COM: ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — “A Montgomery County judge has thrown out speeding tickets issued to four county police officers.” Click the WUSA9.COM url to read the entire article.

A summary of the story is that a circuit court judge threw out the speed-camera tickets of four police officers because their “right to due process was violated.” Apparently the police department requires a written policy for speed camera violations for on duty police.

I found this excuse wanting for common sense and on its face – ridiculous. Using the judge’s logic this must mean that if my family has no written policy on speed camera tickets I can escape prosecution for the same lame reason. The camera caught a police vehicle speeding with no emergency lights activated. I would bet there is a policy that when an emergency vehicle is operated at high speed those emergency lights must be on. You think? It might even be a state law as is the case in other states.

Public safety culture does seem different on the East coast than elsewhere. In California at the agency I used to work for, we were trained to operate police vehicles with emergency lights activated when traffic laws were broken while responding to a call for service. There were plenty of on-duty safety regulations regarding the safe operation of police vehicles to deal with situations like these. We all knew that if we operated a police vehicle in an unsafe fashion and there was an accident we as officers would be held responsible.

What I have seen in Maryland often escapes the bounds of common sense. In a few cases I have even called and spoken to Calvert County Sheriff Evans about the behaviors I have seen. Sheriff Evans was very concerned about what I had to say. I told him my impressions of Maryland public safety was that either training is not what it should be or the employee culture is different here and members consider themselves a privileged class that is above obeying the traffic law. I said that it frustrated me when I saw sheriffs and police chiefs gathering on television commercials to talk about traffic safety and seatbelts when day after day I see emergency vehicles and private cars with public safety vanity plates operated outside of the law and all common sense.

It abhors me to make these distinctions because I worked for a police department in California. As a rule I think most officers do not like to call the bad behavior of others to the public’s attention. But this just cannot continue without people getting hurt. Where I worked officers  had training in the proper operation of police vehicles.

I know what officers are up against on a day-to-day basis. That has not escaped me.  In this state, however agencies push their luck allowing bad behavior to continue. The officers in this story were caught and should have received a citation and a conviction. The ticket should have reflected as a mark on their personnel record as well.

This lack of care for public safety extends to drivers of private vehicles tagged with public safety vanity plates.  Some years back I watched with amazement as an FP plated vehicle traveling over the limit was waved through a speed trap as cars traveling at the same speed were stopped and cited. I stopped to ask the officer why and was asked to keep moving. I regularly see holders of the vanity plates violating Maryland traffic laws. Why do they do it? In my time, law enforcement officers held themselves to a higher personal standard. What I see in Maryland are officers and their families using the badge as a means to an end and that end is to avoid a citation. This acquittal in Rockville, Maryland only served to support the out-of-control subculture.

I also know that not all officers behave this way. Thanks to Sheriff Evans and thanks to the excellent training many of our Calvert County Deputies have received I see FEWER (but I do see some) officers violating traffic laws. My sense is that Sheriff Evans has instilled in his department a personal standard and a department standard that the rights and privileges of a police officer to take emergency action are better protected and safer when policy is followed.

Judges need to hold police to a higher standard. The police unions need to hold officers to a higher standard. The public MUST hold their officers, fire fighters, and emergency medical providers to a higher standard and contact agencies when emergency vehicles and holders of public safety vanity plates violate traffic laws. Agencies need to take the complaints SERIOUSLY. The rights and privileges associated with emergency response are fragile. The dangers in driving a public safety vehicle are many and the consequences of bad behavior can be devastating. Public safety professionals are expected to behave like professionals and to fraternally hold each other responsible for law-abiding driving behaviors.

The officers in this WUSA9.COM story should ask the court to hold them personally accountable for their actions and to accept the speeding tickets and the consequences regardless of the judge’s opinion.

(EyeOnAnnapolis.net) An Annapolis City police officer crashed his motorcycle on the way home from work late one May evening. The article at EyeOnAnnapolis has some rather “eye-opening” facts about the crash and driver. Where are the example setters?

Read the entire story at EyeOnAnnapolis.net.

(EyeOnAnnapolis) Click through to Eye On Annapolis for information on a Glen Burnie robbery. Police need your help identifying the suspect from the posted photograph. On April 29, 2009 at approximately 1105 (AM) hours there was an Armed Robbery of the Blockbuster Video Rental store located at 1181 South Crain Highway in Glen Burnie, MD near Hospital Drive.

EyeOnAnnapolis.net

The Maryland Senate last night rejected by one vote a bill to authorize the use of cameras to catch speeding drivers across the state. But some senators said they were concerned that the cameras would be used largely to raise revenue for local governments and that they would represent an unprecedented intrusion into residents’ private lives.

read more | digg story

PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. (March 31, 2009) — Police in Calvert County this afternoon issued a warning about a burglary scheme that has been occurring in the Northwestern portion of the county in recent weeks.

Click through to SOMD.COM to read the rest of the story. Neighborhood Watch groups attention!