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CA: Flood of lawsuits by LAPD officers costs the city millions
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At least 17 officers have won million-dollar-plus jury verdicts or settlements from the city in the last decade in lawsuits involving accusations of sexual harassment, racial discrimination, retaliation and other workplace injustices. ...
City records show that from 2005 to 2010, officers have sued the department over workplace issues more than 250 times. The city has paid settlements or verdicts totaling more than $18 million in about 45 of those cases and has lost several other verdicts worth several million dollars more in cases it is appealing, a review of the records shows. The city has prevailed in about 50 cases. The rest, representing tens of millions of dollars in potential liability, remain open. |
NJ: Feds launch probe into department led by incoming Chicago top cop
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Federal authorities are investigating the police department of New Jersey's largest city, months after the state American Civil Liberties Union complained of rampant misconduct and lax internal oversight.
The Department of Justice announced Monday that they have opened an investigation of the Newark Police Department -- headed since 2006 by Garry McCarthy, the man tapped by Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel to lead the Chicago Police Department.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman says the probe will look into allegations of excessive force, discriminatory policing and poor treatment of detainees in holding cells. They will also investigate whether officers retaliate against those who legally observe, or record, police activity. |
WV: Gun Owners Respond to Motion to Dismiss Gun Rights Suit
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In a series of filings last week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, the West Virginia Citizens Defense League, a Kanawha County gun dealer, and several individual WVCDL members responded to a series of motions to dismiss their lawsuit challenging local gun control ordinances in the cities of Charleston, South Charleston, and Dunbar.
In their filings, WVCDL and the other plaintiffs argued that they have proper standing to challenge city ordinances in Charleston, South Charleston, and Dunbar that prohibit carrying firearms on city-owned property and Charleston city ordinances requiring the registration ofhandguns, imposing a 3-day waiting period on handgun sales, rationing handgun sales, and imposing additional restrictions beyond state and federal law on who may lawfully purchase handguns. |
FL: New High Tech Taser being used in Polk County
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There's a new taser in town that looks like something out of a James Bond movie. It packs a powerful punch and it stops the bad guys in their tracks longer than a stun gun can.
Polk County Sheriff's Office SWAT team members say the taser has already saved lives.
They point to a terrifying scene from inside an Auburndale home last Christmas when a convicted sex offender, 27-year-old Jason Robinson, was accused of brutally attacking his brother and threatening to kill the entire family. ...
Polk County Sheriff's Office is one of only about two dozen law enforcement agencies in Florida using the powerful new TASER Extended Range Electronic Projectile (XREP).
It's fired from a 12 gauge shotgun from up to a hundred feet away. |
NJ: U.S. Justice Department to launch formal investigation into Newark police
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The U.S Department of Justice will launch a formal investigation into the Newark Police Department, eight months after the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey alleged civil rights abuses by officers patrolling the state's largest city, according to three sources with knowledge of the investigation.
The Justice Department investigation is expected to examine police practices, as well as internal affairs policies, the sources said. They said the probe follows months of preliminary interviews with officers that were conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark. The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.
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CA: These guys can't shoot straight
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Apparently I lack the wisdom of Sen. Ted Gaines:
"Clearly this is over the top," said Sen. Ted Gaines (R-Roseville) "We've got to draw the line somewhere for gun rights, and we can start with BB guns."
The Legislature passes a lot of sensless bad gun bills. Given the long record of police officers shooting people only "armed" with real-looking BB guns -- in New York City and in rural upstate New York farm towns, in Washington D.C. and in Los Angeles, and on the long list here -- I don't see how you could argue with a straight face that is one of them.
Toy guns are good fun, but if they don't look like toys, there are just way too many ways things can go wrong these days. |
FL: Florida Bill Outlaws Asking Patients About Guns
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Pediatricians often ask the question at initial well-child visits as a platform to discuss how to safely store guns in the home in order to prevent accidental shootings.
But under the law -- expected to be signed soon by Florida's governor -- doctors would face a $500 fine for inquiring about gun ownership and recording it in a patient's medical record. That fine would increase if a physician asked about guns at more than one visit.
The [NRA] also charges that the American Academy of Pediatrics is pushing an anti-gun agenda and that such questions in a medical setting infringe on patients' Second Amendment rights. |
Chicago’s Daley A Hypocrite with Your Gun Rights To The Bitter End, Says CCRKBA
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Scheduled to retire from office next Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley remains a monumental hypocrite to the bitter end and his request for publicly-financed armed bodyguards proves it, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today
As Daley prepares to leave office, a Washington Times editorial bares the anti-gun Democrat’s hypocrisy. For years, Daley has had armed bodyguards protecting him at the same time he has worked fanatically to deprive his Chicago constituents and every other citizen in Illinois the same level of security, by pushing every crazy anti-gun scheme he or his colleagues could dream up.
Now he wants that same privilege to carry into retirement. |
Auburn shooting no reason for hysteria
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MEANWHILE, the New York Times editorial board is at it again with a simplistic piece about legislation sponsored by perennial gun prohibitionist Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), that would allow denial of Second Amendment rights to anyone whose name is placed on a no-fly watch list.
The New York Times thinks this is just peachy. Evidently the editorial board skipped school the day they talked about the Fifth Amendment, and how it prohibits people from being deprived of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” Having one’s name placed on a no fly list – it happened to the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy – doesn’t come close to being convicted of any crime, through due process, and that is the benchmark. |
Glock, Inc. To Donate $100,000 To The Special Operations Warrior Foundation
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GLOCK, Inc. will make a $100,000 donation to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) during the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) held in Tampa, FL, May 17-19. GLOCK, Inc. Vice President Josh Dorsey will make the presentation to SOWF in the GLOCK exhibition booth (#404) on Wed., May 18, 2011 at 3:00pm.
During the past six years, GLOCK will have donated $600,000 to SOWF, a non-profit organization providing college scholarships to the surviving children of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps special operations personnel killed in combat or training. |
IL: The right to bear arms and self-defense
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The Illinois House voted to reject passing one of the most important and controversial pieces of legislation in a quite a while: the concealed carry bill that would allow permitted and trained individuals in Illinois to carry a gun on or near them at all times.
People feel a natural need to protect themselves and their families, which is why the second constitutional Amendment grants citizens the right to bear arms. However, there exists no constitutional amendment granting the right to government to limit the usage or ownership of private guns. |
TX: Concealed guns could be allowed on campus
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It was an initiative that started following the mass shootings at Virginia Tech back in 2007.
Now Texas senators have voted to allow concealed handgun license holders to carry their weapons into public college classrooms.
Supporters call it a critical self-defense measure and gun rights issue.
Opponents worry it could lead to more campus violence and suicide.
The measure has met stiff resistance from higher education officials, notably from within the University of Texas system.
Ed.: I may have to consider UT for my B.S. in astronautics. |
FL: Florida Law Would Bar Doctors From Asking Parents About Guns
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Florida could become the first state in the nation to bar doctors from asking parents and other patients if they have guns in their homes, a measure that opponents say endangers children and adolescents.
The Florida Legislature has passed the “Don’t Ask” bill and it now awaits the likely signature of the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott, a supporter of gun rights. House Bill 155 generally would prohibit a physician or other health care professionals from asking patients or members of their families whether they own a firearm or have one in their home. |
FL: Florida Bill Would Bar Doctors From Asking Patients About Guns
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As NPR reports, a Florida bill would bar doctors -- in particular pediatricians -- from asking their patients if they own guns. Gov. Rick Scott (R) is expected to sign the bill this week, which would make Florida the first state with such a law.
Scott's office would not release a timeline on when the governor plans to sign the bill. But Scott's press secretary, Lane Wright, told TPM "it's likely he will support it."
The National Rifle Association says doctors asking their patients about firearms in the home intrudes on Second Amendment rights. NRA lobbyists helped write the bill.
"We take our children to pediatricians for medical care -- not moral judgment, not privacy intrusions," former NRA president Marion Hammer said. |
TX: Campus guns measure sees new life
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On the other, senators, without debate, quickly gave themselves the authority to pack pistols anyplace they choose, including schools, bars and hospitals — locations that are prohibited for the general public.
"I'm more hopeful today than I ever have been that this bill will pass," Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said after his campus-carry bill was added to a separate bill dealing with higher education funding that received final passage in the Senate.
"I felt like it was Groundhog Day — doing the same thing over and over. But we were successful today, and this is an important bill the amendment went into, so I think it will pass." |
SC: Taylors man defending his home in slaying, court rules
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Former 13th Circuit Solicitor Bob Ariail appealed the decision, saying that the castle doctrine law is “too broad” and that the dismissal missed the “intent of the legislation.”
However, in the unanimous Supreme Court order, Pleicones wrote that while the 2006 law “doesn’t explicitly provide a procedure for determining immunity,” the wording of the law provided clear direction.
Legislators used the term “immune from criminal prosecution,” which literally means a person is afforded immunity and not merely grounds for an “affirmative defense” in a trial, Pleicones wrote. |
PA: Pennsylvania State Sen. Bob Mensch guilty of disorderly conduct
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Pennsylvania State Sen. Bob Mensch today was found guilty of disorderly conduct for displaying a handgun while driving on Interstate 78.
Mensch, R-Northampton/Lehigh/Bucks/Montgomery, displayed the gun March 9 while driving near mile marker 15, police said.
Mensch said minutes after Judge Andrea Book's decision that he was shocked and disappointed. He also said he plans to appeal the verdict. |
Safer Streets 2011: How the second amendment means smaller government non-violently
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Alright, how do we get this down? And can it be done non-violently? And the payoff: how do armed citizens really get us to smaller government?
Yes, it can be done non-violently. It is done non-violently. Armed citizens mean smaller government.
The ubiquitous armed citizen can reduce a number of 5 million completed acts of violence to something smaller. How about a goal of 2.5 million?
Non-violently? You betcha.
Many, many bureaucracies are dependent on violent crime for their very existence. These bureaucracies have no place in a free society such as ours. They are supported purely where political gun control politically robs the people of their ability to resist a crime in progress only to then point to high crime. |
TX: Texas Senate approves guns in college classrooms
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Texas senators have voted to allow concealed handgun license holders to carry their weapons into public college classrooms.
Monday's vote is a major push on an issue that has stalled in the Senate and House despite overwhelming support from lawmakers in the Republican-dominated Legislature.
Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, had been unable to muster the votes he needed under Senate rules to pass the issue as its own bill. After several failed attempts, Monday's vote tacked the measure onto a universities spending bill. |
TX: Republicans in Texas Senate approve guns on campus
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The measure seemed all but assured easy passage when the legislative session began in January. The Senate had passed a similar bill in 2009 and about 90 lawmakers in the 150-member House had signed on in support this year. But the bill stalled on its first three votes in the Senate and took some maneuvering by Wentworth to get it through.
Supporters hope Monday's vote will help shove the measure past a roadblock in the House, where a similar bill has been stuck without a vote in that chamber with just a few weeks left in the legislative session.
"Campus carry has more momentum than a runaway freight train," said W. Scott Lewis of Students for Concealed Carry, a nationwide group backing the measure. |
TN: Board inconsistent on voter IDs, gun rights
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By this logic, the editorial board should also be an advocate for the Second Amendment. It should be an advocate for constitutional carry, that is, the right to bear arms without the requirement for a costly, unconstitutional carry tax.
Or maybe it’s OK with low-income urban citizens voting, but just don’t trust them walking around with a gun.
Maybe the editorial board doesn’t view the enumerated Second Amendment as guaranteeing a fundamental constitutional right in a democracy. Maybe it just views it as a discarded relic from the past. |
IA: Iowa judges read law, they did not create it
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The constitution of Iowa says all citizens are entitled to equal protection under the law. The law does not say this only applies to heterosexuals. In a basic law class the first thing you learn is that your opinion of a law does not matter, rather it is what the law says. Only what the law says matters.
For example, the Second Amendment says in part: the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. I may not like that law; I may think the founding fathers did not intend that to mean assault weapons, but that is not what the law says. |
NJ: Close the Terror Gap in Gun Laws
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Feel safe with Osama bin Laden gone? Consider this: Terror suspects can legally purchase guns or explosives in the United States. Our laws prevent convicted felons and domestic abusers from buying firearms, but those on the terror watch list, people suspected of plotting against the U.S. and its institutions, can close the deal.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) has introduced legislation to close the “Terror Gap,” correctly calling it a homeland security issue, not a gun issue.
Ed.: The "Terror Gap", commonly known as the Second, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. |
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