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To Serve And Protect

Discussion in 'Politics, Religion and Philosophy -(FORUM CLOSED)-' started by Barnstable, Nov 25, 2014.

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FreeThePeople - Rookie -

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I know this thread it more about police than US uniformed services, but I was wondering, have any of you served in the Army/Military etc.?

FreeThePeople, Jan 17, 2016

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FreeThePeople said: ↑

I know this thread it more about police than US uniformed services, but I was wondering, have any of you served in the Army/Military etc.?
Click to expand...

I was in the Air Force for 24 years. Darth doesn't post much in here, but he is in the Army.

John3:16, Jan 17, 2016

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John3:16 said: ↑

I was in the Air Force for 24 years. Darth doesn't post much in here, but he is in the Army.
Click to expand...

If you're willing, could you share some about your experience? Like... How long were you away for versus being at home? Why did you join? Do you feel like you achieved your goal for why you joined? What did you do for the Air Force?

FreeThePeople, Jan 17, 2016

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I was in for 24 years. I did a 1 year remote to S. Korea away from my family and several TDYs (temporary duty) away from my family. Those were anywhere from a week in Germany to 4 months in Saudi Arabia. I was able to get some nice TDYs to San Francisco, Germany, Las Vegas, Destin Florida, Equador, and Australia.

My goal in joining was to get out of Hayward California. LOL. if you've been there, you'll understand. I knew I needed to grow up, learn some skills, and making some money along the way was a bonus. I definitely got everything out of it, and then some. One of the 3 best decisions of my life. The benefits of retiring aren't bad either.

I started out working in a Training Group for students who just finished basic training. Then I started in computers (when I first joined, computers were just becoming popular). I finished my career as a 1st Sgt, which means I was responsible for morale of enlisted people in my squadron , as well as dishing out the punishment.

While I loved what I did and the places I've been and the people I've met, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The world seems much crazier than when I first joined and I think it's just gonna get worse. If someone is determine to join, do 4 years and get that GI Bill and then get out. Just my opinion.

John3:16, Jan 18, 2016

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For what it's worth my brother was a Marine and said the exact same thing: now is NOT the time to join the military. If you're really into some of the benefits, do the bare minimum and get out as soon as you can.

therealdeal, Jan 18, 2016

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I was toying with the idea of joining not for the benefits but for the opportunity that it could place me in to do humanitarian work. Like, being in the Middle East, specifically.

FreeThePeople, Jan 18, 2016

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FreeThePeople said: ↑

I was toying with the idea of joining not for the benefits but for the opportunity that it could place me in to do humanitarian work. Like, being in the Middle East, specifically.
Click to expand...

Wanna do good? Join the Peace Corp. The military does a lot of humanitarian work (food, water, medical supplies, clothing, etc), but it's more of a drop off type thing and then they're gone.

John3:16, Jan 18, 2016

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Could have been in the Oregon Militia thread too, but

Barnstable, Jan 26, 2016

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2 LAPD officers are charged with sexually assaulting women while on duty

Two officers from the Los Angeles Police Department have been charged with repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting several women while on duty.

The men threatened their victims with arrest if they did not comply with their demands and abused at least some of the women in the back seat of the unmarked police car they drove together, according to court records.

Luis Valenzuela, 43, and James C. Nichols, 44, face more than a dozen felony charges, each stemming from allegations they preyed together and alone on four women from late 2008 to 2011, according to a complaint filed Tuesday by the county district attorney’s office. They are accused by prosecutors of forcing some women to have sex and others to perform oral sex. Valenzuela also is accused of assaulting one woman with a gun.

The charges carry a possible punishment of life in prison.

Both men were arrested Wednesday by detectives from their own department and held on more than $3.5 million bail. They are scheduled to appear in court Thursday. The men and their attorneys could not be reached for comment.

“It is a wonderful development, although it is years overdue,” said Dennis Chang, an attorney representing two of the women. “It’s a ray of light that these women will finally see some justice.”

The LAPD placed the officers on unpaid leave more than two years ago after a stop-and-start internal investigation that was launched when a woman came forward to report the men.

Detectives from an elite investigative unit eventually took over the case in 2014 and reworked it in an effort to gather sufficient evidence for prosecutors to bring a criminal case against the men.

“These two officers have disgraced themselves, they’ve disgraced this badge, they’ve disgraced their oath of office,” a somber Chief Charlie Beck told reporters Wednesday. “I am extremely troubled by what they’ve done.”

Beck declined to say much about the investigation, but said the case included dozens of interviews, forensic analysis, long-term surveillance and search warrants. Detectives also retraced the officers’ movements, he said, checking prior contacts they had made and going to Hollywood in search of other potential victims.

Beck said investigators worked a difficult case, complicated by the fact that the officers “preyed on folks that are sometimes reluctant witnesses, reluctant victims.”

“When we got the district attorney’s assurance that she would file, we went out and physically tracked down these — and I use the term loosely — officers and put them in handcuffs,” Beck said.

The Times first wrote about the allegations against Nichols and Valenzuela in 2013 when LAPD detectives sought a search warrant to confiscate the men’s computers and phones.

An affidavit that accompanied the warrant described a dark pattern of behavior. The pair, who worked together as narcotics officers in the LAPD’s Hollywood Division, were accused of targeting women they had arrested for drug possession and, in some cases, had used in their narcotics work as confidential informants.

They repeatedly used the threat of jail to get women into an unmarked Volkswagen Jetta they drove on duty and took them to secluded areas where one of the officers demanded sex while the other kept watch, the warrant alleged.

One woman, who settled a lawsuit against the police department for $575,000, was arrested in 2010 by the officers, Chang, her attorney, said in an earlier interview with The Times. The officers then offered to help free her from custody and win her a lenient sentence if she agreed in exchange to work for them as an informant on other investigations.

Over the next year, Nichols and Valenzuela confronted the woman repeatedly, telling her they would no longer help her unless she had sex with them, Chang and the affidavit said. She agreed, she told investigators, out of fear the officers would send her back to jail if she refused.

Valenzuela later showed up at the woman's apartment while he was off duty and, several months later, had sex with her in the back seat of an unmarked undercover car while he was working, according to the affidavit. Nichols, the woman told investigators, brought her to a hotel and, on a later encounter, had sex with her in her apartment, the affidavit alleges.

The first woman to accuse the men came forward in early 2010. She told a supervisor in the Hollywood narcotics unit of being stopped by the officers more than a year earlier, according to the affidavit. The woman, who worked as an informant, said Valenzuela had threatened to take her to jail if she refused to get in the car, then got into the back seat with her and exposed himself, telling the woman to touch him, the affidavit said.

An attempt to look into the woman’s claim went nowhere when the detective assigned to the case was unable to locate her, according to the affidavit.

A year later, however, another woman gave a similar account to a station supervisor after being arrested. She recounted how two officers driving a Jetta had pulled up alongside her as she was walking her dog in Hollywood in 2009. The officers, whom she recognized as the same cops who had arrested her previously, ordered her into the car.

Valenzuela then got into the back seat with the woman and handed her dog to Nichols, who drove the car a short distance to a more secluded area where Valenzuela forced her to perform oral sex on him, according to police records contained in the warrant.

The department’s internal affairs office reopened the case, but for reasons not explained in the warrant, the investigation stalled again for the next year and a half. During this time, police records show, the officers were transferred to different divisions.

Then, in July 2012, a man left a phone message for the vice unit at the LAPD’s Northeast station, where Nichols was assigned. The man relayed a conversation he had had with a prostitute, who said patrol officers in the area were picking up prostitutes and letting them go in exchange for oral sex, the warrant said.

It is not clear how, but from this lead an investigator identified two more women who reported encounters in which Nichols and Valenzuela coerced them into performing sex acts in exchange for leniency.

Beck had harsh words for the officers Wednesday, saying they had abused their authority as police officers.

“It’s a violation of public trust,” the chief said. “That’s what makes it so horrific.”
Click to expand...

LINK

It's amazing to me that it took 3 years of investigation to finally charge them.

revgen, Feb 18, 2016

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revgen said: ↑

LINK

It's amazing to me that it took 3 years of investigation to finally charge them.
Click to expand...

Their was a cop here in OKC who raped 30+ women while he was on duty. He just got sentenced to 225 years (or something like that).

John3:16, Feb 18, 2016

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Two Dozen Guns Somehow Walked Out Of A DC Police Evidence Locker, Half To Be Used In Other Crimes

By Steve Birr and Josh Fatzick – More than two dozen firearms that were supposed to be in the custody of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) somehow made their way back to the streets and were used in other crimes, documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation appear to show.

An internal memo from the D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS) reveals 24 guns police confiscated between 2005 and 2012 vanished from the MPD evidence locker and were later confiscated yet again in other crimes. One of the weapons reappeared in a murder, while several others were used to commit violent crimes

The issue with missing guns rose to the surface after a reporter requested information regarding the firearms recovered during homicides that occurred in 2014.

The information request from Amelia Rufer, a reporter with the website Homicide Watch, was limited to cases from 2014, but an employee at DFS conducted a more thorough review of guns that came through the crime lab and found the discrepancies. The subsequent DFS memo documenting the investigation was provided to TheDCNF by an employee of the department.

The documents, dated Jan. 9, 2015, show D.C. police logged 24 guns into their evidence database between 2005 and 2012. Those guns somehow left police possession, were used in crimes and then returned to police possession, where they were re-logged into the police database.

The forensics agency keeps track of the serial number of each gun that comes into its possession and determined something was wrong when the serial numbers came back attached to two separate cases.

DFS reviewed the 24 matches and found half of them may have been the result of duplicated registrations. The MPD requires personal firearms be registered with the city. If the gun is later recovered during an investigation, the serial number will be re-registered in their systems, potentially creating a duplicate.

These cases are designated as “yellow flags” in the memo, because while there is evidence the firearm entries may be the result of previous registration, confirmation requires further investigation.

The other 12 matches, which contained no significant connections with investigations or possible duplicated entries, were deemed “red flags.”

In one of the cases, from 2008, U.S. Parks Police confiscated a gun and sent it to the MPD Firearms and Toolmark Examination Unit (FEU) to be test-fired. Police have no record indicating the final destination of the .357 revolver, but the same gun was later recovered as evidence at the scene of a homicide in 2009.

The “red flag” cases included one instance, in 2011, where a Taurus .38 Special revolver was submitted to the MPD FEU for test firing after police recovered it from its owner. Police evidence records indicated the gun was located at the MPD First District headquarters as of Dec. 30, 2011.

Fast forward to 2014, the same gun came back into the possession of police, and was described as a “Police officer’s firearm, ”after it was submitted as evidence in an assault on a police officer. As of Jan. 9, 2015, the gunwas being held for “safekeeping” by the DFS.

Delonte Yate, the victim in the assault, is described as a special police officer. In Washington, D.C., special police officers are basically security guards who carry guns and are eligible to make arrests. They are licensed by the MPD. It is unknown whether the .38 Special labeled a “Police officer’s firearm” in the memo was in the possession of Yate or belonged to another party involved.

“Without any additional records from 2011, it is unclear how the Taurus .38 Special left MPD custody at the 1st District Property to become a ‘Police officer’s firearm’ in the 2014 [assault on a police officer]. This requires further investigation,” the DFS memo reads.

Another case, from 2009, also involved a special police officer in possession of a gun supposed to be in a police evidence locker.

In 2009, police took possession of another .38 special from Duane Young, a defendant charged with carrying a pistol without a license. The evidence log for the firearm was left blank, but a second entry accompanying thegun showed six .38 caliber bullets in police possession.

Later, in 2012, a police investigation involving the same weapon found it in the possession of Teron Bridgett, a special police officer with Tri-Sec Investigative Service. Notes accompanying the investigation list the actual owner of the gun, and Tri-Sec Investigative Service, as a man named Maurice Lynch. Further, the notes indicate the gun was kept in police custody to be returned to Lynch once he could pass a “Fitness for Duty” test.

“Due to the lack of records from the 2009 [carrying a pistol without a license] case, it is unclear how the Taurus .38 Special left MPD custody to end up in the possession of Maurice Lynch in 2012. This requires further investigation,” according to the DFS memo.

TheDCNF contacted DFS Director of Communications LaShon Beamon for additional information regarding the internal memo. Beamon explained that since the events took place while the forensics lab was still under the control of MPD, she could not provide any additional information.

The District took control of the MPD forensics lab in 2012, combining it with the D.C. Public Health Laboratory and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The Consolidated Forensic Laboratory (CFL) has since operated under the DFS.

Beamon directed TheDCNF to contact Lt. Sean Conboy, spokesperson for the MPD. Conboy failed to respond to repeated requests for comment from TheDCNF.

Read the entire memo here:

DFS Memo
Click to expand...

LINK

revgen, Feb 20, 2016

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revgen said: ↑

LINK
Click to expand...

Fast n Furious Part 2 ???

John3:16, Feb 20, 2016

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I'm glad I'm not a DC resident. Somebody should be fired over this.

revgen, Feb 20, 2016

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Barnstable said: ↑

Could have been in the Oregon Militia thread too, but

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Idk how this made it on tv.... But 95% of police contact, is just like this... job well done...

davriver209, Feb 22, 2016

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revgen said: ↑

I'm glad I'm not a DC resident. Somebody should be fired over this.
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I agree... It's unfortunate, but somehow, we lose guns, that's just unacceptable. My dept, before I was hired, lost 3 shotguns and 2 rifles.... They have no idea where they went... Ever since then, we keep a tight lid and track our guns now... Bad bad oversight... Needless to say, supervisors lost their jobs

davriver209, Feb 22, 2016

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revgen said: ↑

LINK

It's amazing to me that it took 3 years of investigation to finally charge them.
Click to expand...

Those guys are no more different than the typical scumbags we deal with on a daily basis...

davriver209, Feb 22, 2016

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So, this is going viral on FB.

After many white cops were not convicted of murder despite video evidence, the Chinese cop was convicted of 2nd degree murder. According to reports, he didn't see Akai Gurley when his gun accidentally discharged, ricocheted off a wall, and ultimately killed Akai.

Are they "scapegoating" one minority to appease another? Would he have been convicted had he been white?

thkthebest, Feb 22, 2016

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I have to read up on what happened this case... She's suggesting that because Liang did not have "white prevelige" that was why he was convicted?

Or she merely asking the question, or accusing the justice system of being systematically racist?

davriver209, Feb 23, 2016

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I need to find out more as well before I feel comfortable weighing in.

Barnstable, Feb 23, 2016

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davriver209 said: ↑

I have to read up on what happened this case... She's suggesting that because Liang did not have "white prevelige" that was why he was convicted?

Or she merely asking the question, or accusing the justice system of being systematically racist?
Click to expand...

In a nutshell, yes to both.

I think she's basically saying that the whole system is broken / racist. Had he been white, he would not have been convicted. Not a single white cop has been convicted in the past decade, despite witnesses, video evidence, etc. Now, an Asian officer reportedly makes a mistake and is convicted, which doesn't sound right. She's saying that while he deserves some form of punishment, the punishment should fit the crime, and he seems to be paying for the crimes committed by previous white cops. Not sure if she said this next part, but some are saying that because of the pressures of the Black Lives Matter movement, "they" are trying to appease one minority group (blacks) by convicting another minority group (asians).

thkthebest, Feb 23, 2016

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