Armored Military Vehicles To Patrol Wisconsin Neighborhoods

via: TheIntelHub
Paul Joseph Watson
August 7, 2012

Model previously used to hunt insurgents in Afghanistan

Armored military vehicles of the type used to hunt for insurgents in Afghanistan are set to patrol roads in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin as part of a training exercise on behalf of the U.S. Army Reserve.

“(Capt. William) Geddes said the U.S. Army Reserve wanted to alert the public to the training dates so residents are not alarmed when a pack of heavily armored military vehicles is driving around the county,” reports Sheboyganpress.com.

The exercises are being run despite the fact that troops driving the M1117 Armored Security Vehicles have already received their basic training.

“They’re vehicles that these military officers might use if they’re deployed, patrol vehicles,” Geddes said, adding that the drills were to ensure that officers didn’t get “rusty” in handling the M1117s.

The vehicles, which have been used overseas in Afghanistan, are described as being “strange,” “intimidating” and “heavily armored,” while being the same size as a large SUV.

Local authorities have apparently not even been briefed about the planned exercises, which will run until August 17.

“Sheboygan County Administrator Adam Payne said he had not heard about the training exercises. Two city officials declined to comment, because they also had heard nothing about the training,” states the report.

Geddes urged citizens not to create safety hazards on the roads by stopping to gaze at the vehicles.

The increasing phenomena of military training drills taking place away from military bases and amidst the general public has led to fears that the American people are being acclimatized to accept a potential future declaration of martial law.

Back in June, residents in St Louis were shocked to see heavily armored U.S. Army vehicles patrolling neighborhoods as part of an exercise.

Continue Reading At: TheIntelHub.com

Police raid wrong house, kill family dog and make children sit with its bloody corpse

via: NaturalNews
Monday, August 06, 2012
By: J. D. Heyes

[NaturalNews] There are times when, despite the potential seriousness of a crime, a little compassion is in order for those and their families, for children cannot be held responsible for the crimes of their parents.

They especially should not be made to suffer if their parents are actually innocent of any crimes.

So it’s with no small helping of disdain we bring you the story of a wrongly accused suspect whose family was made to suffer needlessly because a St. Paul, Minn., storm-trooper drug task force kicked in the wrong door.

According to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Minneapolis, members of the St. Paul Police Dept. drug unit broke down the door to the home of lead plaintiff Roberto Franco and shot the family dog before handcuffing all nine occupants – including three children – who were then forced “to sit next to the carcass of their dead and bloody pet for more than an hour.” The suit states the anti-drug team continued to search Franco’s property even after realizing they raided the wrong house.

It used to be, in America, that you were innocent until proven guilty. Even taking into consideration the dangerous nature of police work, the very act of storming someone’s home to make an arrest presumes guilt more than it recognizes a potential danger, making goofs like kicking in the wrong door all the more heinous.

Adding insult to injury by cuffing kids and making them sit next to the family’s dead dog is just despicable. You can’t make this stuff up.

Try next door

The suit, filed against the officers of the Dakota County Drug Task Force, the St. Paul Police Department, and a federal Drug Enforcement Agency officer who was along for the ride apparently, claims essentially that the task force raided the wrong house, noting that the squad should have gone next door.

Lead plaintiff Franco, in the suit, said Officer Shawn Scovill, who led the raid, “provided false information to a Minnesota District Court judge in order to obtain a search warrant.”

“Defendant Scovill lied when he informed the District Court judge who reviewed Scovill’s search warrant application that Scovill had obtained information from the confidential informant that the plaintiffs’ home was the properly targeted house and that the address and the identity of the individuals who resided therein were the plaintiffs,” it says.

The complaint says the suspect named in the warrant is one Rafael Ybarra; Franco wasn’t named in the search warrant at all, nor was anyone else living in the home, making the resultant hour-long search of his premises even more difficult to understand.

Officers charged with ‘brutalizing’ the family

“There was never a mention of the plaintiff, Roberto Franco, in any documents related to the raid search warrant,” says the complaint, adding that Franco “had never been discussed or considered a suspect by law enforcement, Scovill, or any of the defendants directly or indirectly involved in the raid, relative to any alleged involvement by Franco in any distribution of contraband prior to the wrong house raid.

Officers burst through Franco’s door on the night of July 13, 2010. The complaint said the team acted “negligently” in “raiding the wrong home,” charging officers with “brutalizing” all of the home’s occupants.

The complaint goes on to say that another plaintiff, Analese Franco, “was forced, virtually naked, from her bed onto the floor at gunpoint by officers,” who breached the home “at gun and rifle point.”

“Each plaintiff was forced to the floor at gun and rifle point and handcuffed behind their backs,” the complaint says. “Defendants shot and killed the family dog and forced the handcuffed children to sit next to the carcass of their dead and bloody pet for more than an hour while defendants continued to search the plaintiffs’ home.”

The suit seeks $30 million in compensation for civil rights violations and punitive damages.

Sources:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/18/48482.htm

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/18/DogStory.pdf

http://www.wesh.com

Read More At: NaturalNews.com

Specialized Military Police Deployed in America During Civil Unrest

via: OccupyCorporatism
by: Susanne Posel
August 1, 2012

In Camp Pendleton, California, the Marine Corp have created a law-enforcement battalion (ELB) consisting of specialized military police officers (SMP) that will be deployed to assist in investigating crimes dealing with drug trafficking, train security and terrorism.

The ELBs contain an estimated 500 SMPs and trained dogs. While capitalizing on their investigative and police training, they will take the role of current street cops while still remaining part of the Marine Corp.

Maj. Jan Durham, commander of the 1st Law Enforcement Battalion at Camp Pendleton states: “Over the past 11 years of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, some lessons learned painfully, there has been a growing appreciation and a demand for, on the part of the war-fighter, the unique skills and capabilities that MPs bring to the fight. We do enforce traffic laws and we do write reports and tickets, and that’s good, but we do so much more than that.”

Having been deployed overseas prior to their new placement, these SMPs will secure evidence and assist local police departments in building cases against predetermined criminal networks. They may even conduct raids in cities and add to the show of force that is now being used to intimidate the average citizen.

SMPs would be deployed to assist in any event of civil disturbance, handling of detainees, use biometrics to identify suspects and conduct forensic work. Their assistance is not limited to conducting DUIs and writing speeding tickets in an effort to re-brand the Marine Corps as being more involved with average work now allocated to local law enforcement.

Maj. Jan Durham, commander of the 1st Law Enforcement Battalion at Camp Pendleton states: “Over the past 11 years of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, some lessons learned painfully, there has been a growing appreciation and a demand for, on the part of the war-fighter, the unique skills and capabilities that MPs bring to the fight. We do enforce traffic laws and we do write reports and tickets, and that’s good, but we do so much more than that.”

Loren Thompson, defense analyst, said: “This is a smart idea because the biggest single problem the Marines have in dealing with low-intensity types of threats is that they basically are trained to kill people. It’s good for the Marines to have skills that allow them to contain threats without creating casualties.”

Last June, the Department of Defense began testing military drills in Missouri. While local residents of St. Louis City were warned not to be “alarmed” as US Army tanks travelled down residential neighborhoods. They were told that this is not the beginning signs of martial law.

Continue Reading At: OccupyCorporatism.com

Insane Amount of Militarized Police for Peaceful Protests in Anaheim

via: ActivistPost
Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Anaheim, CA continues to be the site for a wave escalating police brutality protests following the chaos that ensued after the shooting of unarmed Manuel Diaz.  It has since come to light that Diaz was shot in the leg and the back of the head. The following day, Joel Acevedo was allegedly killed by police while already in handcuffs. These latest incidents have led to lawsuits and calls for federal investigation.

What began as a gathering of locals in response to what they believed was yet another incident in a string of police misconduct cases that have included 7 suspicious shootings with 5 deaths, has now morphed into a much larger mix of protesters after more than 10 days of marches. In our last update, we questioned if there might be provocateurs among the legitimate protesting public, especially since hacktivist collective Anonymous has become involved, and whether or not the escalating violence would justify full-blown militarization. Well, it appears we now have the answer to that question.

There has been a complete mainstream media blackout, despite the following video that shows what looks like a foreign occupation, with armored vehicles, and police with assault rifles. There are also photos of police with grenade launchers being employed in front of Disneyland. This is part of the trend for which the government’s own documents suggest is preparation for widespread civil unrest in America; one where the police and military will work together to oppress Americans: it is the ultimate betrayal.

Continue Reading At: ActivistPost.com

Gregory Mannarino – Monetary System Failure, Social Unrest, Militarized Police

via: GregVegas5909
August 1, 2012

Police Doesn’t Know Where It Stands?

via: RTAmerica
July 31, 2012

Ten months ago Occupy Wall street movement kicked off in New York and for the last eight months a couple of top law schools in the country have been looking in depth at police response to the protesters. The study revealed that there was a systematic effort by police to suppress those protests even though the protesters were following the laws and being peaceful. In total there is 130 incidents of excessive or unwarranted force. John Knefel of Radio Dispatch joins RT’s Kristine Frazao from New York to explain how that could happen.

Police In Southern California Appear On The Streets In FULL MILITARY GEAR

via: MoxNewsDotCom
July 31, 2012

The Dollar Vigilante: Jeff Berwick speaks with Phil Mackesy

via: TheDollarVigilante
July 30, 2012

CopBlock founder faces 21 years in prison on “wiretapping” charges for filming police

via: ActivistPost
Monday, July 30, 2012

According to court documents, Adam “Ademo” Mueller, journalist and co-host of nationally syndicated radio talk show Free Talk Live, has been indicted on three counts of felony wiretapping. The charges are a result of a vlog Mueller posted on CopBlock.org about an incident involving alleged police misconduct, which featured recorded interviews of on-duty public officials.

Mueller’s report focused on video recorded by a student’s cell phone at Manchester’s West High School, which depicted Officer Darren Murphy slamming a 17-year-old boy into a cafeteria table in October of 2011. Although public officials told the student to delete the video, it ended up in Adam Mueller’s hands instead.

Continue Reading At: ActivistPost.com

Conversations w/Great Minds – NSA Whistleblowers – Are They Spying on the Entire Country?

via: TheBigPicture
July 30, 2012

For tonight’s Conversations with Great Minds – I’m joined by NSA whistleblowers Thomas Drake and Kirk Wiebe. Both men were involved in exposing the NSA’s massive, illegal, domestic spying program known as the Trailblazer project initiated in 2000. Despite not leaking any classified information – and exhaustively going through all the protocols required for members of the intelligence community to blow the whistle on wrongdoing – both men faced serious retributions for going public with what they knew about the NSA’s surveillance program. In 2007 – after a reporter for the Baltimore Sun obtained information regarding waste, fraud, and abuse at the NSA – FBI agents raided the home Kirk Wiebe – confiscating computer hard drives and business records – and revoking security clearance that Wiebe – an NSA veteran – had held since 1964. Wiebe was not charged with any crime. However – Thomas Drake – whose home was also raided – was charged with multiple crimes including violation of the Espionage Act of 1917. Eventually those charges were dropped in 2011. Since then – Drake has gone on to win multiple awards for his courage in blowing the whistle on the NSA – including the Ridenour Prize for Truth Telling and the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. And both he and Kirk Wiebe have done tremendous work to inform all of us on the growing American surveillance state. The National Security Agency is building a massive spy center in Utah. What for? And will Americans be the targets of the NSA’s prying eyes?

Source: TheBigPicture