Is society placing too much trust in the justice system?

[johnb]

http://home.austin.rr.com/apdhallofshame/occupations.htm

Many occupations more dangerous than policing

We frequently hear police officers complain how dangerous their jobs are, using guilt as a motivator to extract support for increased pay or protection from consequences of officer misconduct. After September 11, it became almost impossible to criticize police officers' misbehavior without prefacing comments with genuflections toward officers' relative "heroism." "They risk their lives for us every day," was the common refrain.

And of course, in a sense, that's true. Police officers' jobs are more dangerous than most -- 12.1 officers per 100,000 die on the job annually compared with 4.3 per 100,00, which is the national average for all occupations. But many common jobs are much more dangerous than a police officer's, including groundskeepers, farmers, airline pilots, construction workers, and truck drivers.

Police are trained to approach potential threats with overwhelming force, and are outfitted with numerous safety technologies (vests, helmets, etc.) that make their on-the-job deaths much less likely than for, say, lumberjacks. Multiple officers provide backup frequently even for routine traffic stops. And harsh punishment of copkillers -- both ill treatment while in official hands and the threat of capital punishment -- creates dramatic incentives even for the worst bad guys to avoid killing a peace officer. Indeed, a great many police deaths involve traffic accidents or friendly fire.

Here's a list compiled from federal sources concerning the relative danger of several jobs with higher-than-average fatality rates:

Occupations more dangerous than being a police officer

Number of deaths per 100,000 employed

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics,

Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2000

Timber cutting 122.1

Fishermen 108.3

Airplane pilots 100.8

Farmers 33.0

Miners 30.0

Construction laborers 28.3

Truck drivers 27.6

Groundskeepers 14.9

Laborers (non-construction) 13.2

Ranchers 13.0

Bus drivers 12.9

Police and detectives 12.1

National average: 4.3

Data taken from BLS press release on the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries at http://stats.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfnr0008.pdf, and the Census-derived table at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.t04.htm.


http://www.hrw.org/reports98/police/

Police abuse remains one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States. The excessive use of force by police officers, including unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and rough treatment, persists because overwhelming barriers to accountability make it possible for officers who commit human rights violations to escape due punishment and often to repeat their offenses. Police or public officials greet each new report of brutality with denials or explain that the act was an aberration, while the administrative and criminal systems that should deter these abuses by holding officers accountable instead virtually guarantee them impunity.

The barriers to accountability are remarkably similar from city to city. Shortcomings in recruitment, training, and management are common to all. So is the fact that officers who repeatedly commit human rights violations tend to be a small minority who taint entire police departments but are protected, routinely, by the silence of their fellow officers and by flawed systems of reporting, oversight, and accountability.

http://www.catoinstitute.org/research/criminal-justice/police.html

http://www.catoinstitute.org/dailys/09-09-99.html

There is no more basic role of government than to keep the peace. And there are few harder jobs. Although police typically face more boredom than danger, the latter can come with frightening suddenness. One can sympathize with the adage: better to be judged by 12 (jurors) than carried by six (pallbearers).

Yet, the potential for abuse is enormous. No society can remain free if it does not constrain the government's exercise of deadly force.

The threat to liberty is all too evident. Earlier this year, in New York City, for instance, one cop pled guilty to, and another was convicted of, using a broom handle to sodomize a handcuffed victim. Officer Justin Volpe wrongly believed that the victim, Abner Louima, had punched him during a disturbance at a nightclub.

Last February, Amadou Diallo, an unarmed 22-year-old African immigrant, was cut down by 19 bullets fired by several New York City officers. He was apparently mistaken for a criminal suspect.

Also in 1999, three Nassau County jail guards were charged for beating to death a prisoner who had been arrested for driving while impaired. More than 100 complaints of guard brutality were filed against the jail between 1991 and 1998.

[johnb]

You don't have to search long or hard to find web sites with volumes written detailing reams of police scandals. From cops dealing drugs, torturing prisoners, raping women it's all there. That, however, is only a part of it. Prosecutors and judges often wink and nod at the goings on, especially when there is a financial incentive. My personal pet peeve with the justice system are the nation's Asset Forfeiture Laws. These beauties allow cops to seize other people's property, including cash, then compel the victim to "prove" the property is innocent of any crime. A double insult is that if the victim is unable to "prove" the innocence of his property oftentimes it remains with the police department that seized it.

Those hot Corvettes you see police driving on the interstates, well, there is a strong chance they weren't paid for. Well, not by the government at least. The rub here is that these types of laws were one of the sparks for the American Revolution. John Hancock's schooner, the Liberty, was seized by the Crown for his alleged failure to pay an import tax on tea.

While I doubt much of the anti-Ashcroft rhetoric of the political left I do wonder where it is we are heading when we are placing more and more power and less and less oversight/accountability on the police and prosecutors. In this post 9/11 era it is almost a civil heresy to not genuflect before the badge.

Risk is a funny thing. Listening to enviro-wackjobs, you'd swear people must be dropping dead from the "harmful" effects of nuclear power. Yet, no one has ever actually died from the use of nuclear power in America while people die frequently from black lung disease and suffer the debilitating effects of asmtha and such things aggravated by the pollutants created by coal use. Look at what 9/11 is doing to law enforcement. What are the more realistic threats to life and limb in Wake County that could be addressed by police action? Just taking a stab at it, I'd place be hit by a drunk drivier as the most likely cause of injury or mortality for any of us.

Yet there are people with multiple convictions driving now. A couple of years ago the paper had a story about a Cary woman who had some obscene number of DWI arrests and convictions ( I seem to recall there being more than two dozen ) and she was still at it.

People get all worked up over things that sound really scary and become very willing to compromise their liberty when maybe they aren't really considering the issue. We have this insane "War on Drugs" which is corrupting police, prosecutors, and judges across America, for what gain? It's a "war" that cannot be won (unless we adopt China's strategy - execute all the addicts. ), yet we have compromised our right to be protected against unreasonable search and seizure for it. National addition rates are the same today as they were a hundred years ago.

[johnb]

This is one of the saddest and most jarring examples of the near total lack of accountability I know of.

http://www.gafamilylink.com/apps/program.cfm?ProgramID=375

You'll see the contact for the Coffee County, Georiga DARE Program is the Sherriff, Carlton Evans. Well, he was the Sherriff.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=19711

As the Oct. 3 Associated Press reported, when agents from the FBI and Georgia Bureau of Investigations tried to arrest Coffee County Sheriff Carlton Evans earlier this month, he bolted for a nearby wood. About five hours later, the sheriff's body was found in the wood after he had apparently shot himself. The reason for his evasion of arrest and subsequent suicide? He was wanted on federal charges of conspiracy to grow more than a 1,000 pounds of marijuana. According to the Oct. 3 Atlanta Journal-Constitution, charges were also directed at a former captain in Evans' department and Evans' former chief deputy.

My family comes from Coffee County, Sherriff Evans was a very distant relative of mine, although I had never met him. He was also growing quite a bit of marijuana locally. I had kept a subscription to the local newspaper and almost every issue during the school year he was pictured in the weekly paper giving an award to some local kids for their participation in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program. What does one explain that to the kids? For that matter, how does one explain the actions of Justin Volpe to children?

How much trust should be placed with anyone in that position? Has society aggravated the potential for abuse by crimminalizing matters that probably should never have been crimminalized? (drug use) Seems to me we keep crimminalizing more and more activity, seat belt usage for instance, or even making certain _legal_ actions triggers for government snoops to question innocent people, large cash transactions. Whatever happened to that imaginary "right to privacy"? Or does that exact only in the context of the abortion question?

Are police forces supposed to be a Praetorian Guard, immune to critique and oversight? True a few are killed in the line of duty, but is that supposed to immunize a whole profession from critical oversight and management? If that is the case then those GI's at Abu Ghraib prison shouldn't be prosecuted, they should be decorated considering the numbers of GI's who have died in the line of duty. We don't treat any other profession like that, even ones that deliberately place people in harms way.

Seems to me we as a people can recognize that the GI MP's at that prison were behaving like beasts and we can support their prosecution and not assume that all GI's are like that. What's more, I don't think anyone here, aside from Mark and maybe a few of the Donkeycrats, would assume that the behaviour of those few is the pattern for all the other GI's over there. Why then do so many assume that those who look at corrupt police, corrupt prosecutors, and corrupt judges are making an indictment against all them? As a society we do this all the time. Farmers are somehow more "American" or wholesome than the rest of us and they get farm price supports, a whole cabinet department devoted to their profession, cut rate loans to engage in farming, and a host of other benefits not provided to computer programmers, pertroleum refinery workers, or auto repair shop owners. Why do we do this?

[johnb]

This is an issue with a history. If you search Google with the key word Wichersham Report you'll find articles discussing a Federal investigation into police brutality from 1931. Many of the issues are alarmingly unchanged.

http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/guides/jurisprudence/wickersham.asp

Much more recently groups ranging from Donkeycrat leaning, GOP leaning, to Libertarian leaning have noted with alarm the militarization of police and the degraded protections citizens have against the police, and this was pre-9/11:

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 1994


President William J. Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500


Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to urge you to appoint a national commission to review the policies and practices of all federal law enforcement agencies and to make recommendations regarding steps that must be taken to ensure that such agencies comply with the law. This review in necessitated by widespread abuses of civil liberties and human rights committed by these agencies and their failure to undertake meaningful and ameliorative reforms.

Federal police officers now close to 10 percent of the nations total law enforcement force. Today, some fifty-three separate federal agencies have the authority to carry firearms and make arrests. This represents an enormous expansion in recent years in terms of both personnel and jurisdiction. What is lacking, however, is systematic oversight and review of federal police practices. This has led to numerous cases of serious abuse--some well-publicized and some relatively unknown--in which the following problems have been evident:

improper use of deadly force;

physical and verbal abuse;

use of para-military and strike force units or tactics without justification;

use of "no-knock" entrances without justification;

inadequate investigation of allegations of misconduct;

use of unreliable informants without sufficient verification of their allegations;

use of "contingency payments" to informants, giving them an incentive to fabricate information since payment is usually contingent upon conviction;

entrapment;

unnecessary inducement of criminal activities as an investigative technique;

inappropriate and disproportionate use of forfeiture proceedings to obtain financing for law enforcement equipment and activities;

use of military units and equipment in the course of domestic law enforcement;

pretextual use of immigration laws and Immigration and Naturalization Service personnel for non-immigration law enforcement.

There is a precedent for the appointment of a national commission to look into such abuses. In 1929, after a decade of corruption and lawlessness in federal law enforcement, President Hoover appointed the eleven-member National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement under the chairmanship of George Wickersham, a former U.S. Attorney General. The 1931 Wickersham Commission Report "Lawlessness in Law Enforcement," exposed a pattern of pervasive police brutality and helped stimulate major reforms in federal law enforcement practices.

We propose the appointment of a national commission similar to the Wickersham Commission: an independent body, appointed by the President, and staffed by some of the nation's prominent experts on law enforcement. Such a commission would be charged with reviewing the problematic federal law enforcement policies and practices noted above. These problems are graphically illustrated by the following cases, among many others, that have come to our attention:

DONALD CARLSON
On August 25, 1992, at about 1030 p.m., Donald Carlson returned to his home in Poway, California, opened his garage door with a remote control device, simultaneously illuminating the garage so that Drug Enforcement Administration agents conducting surveillance from nearby could see inside. Just after midnight, when Carlson was asleep, a group of DEA agents burst into his house. Thinking they were robbers, Carlson grabbed his pistol to defend himself. He also dialed 911 for help. The agents shot Carlson three times, twice after he was down and clearly disabled. Carlson spent seven weeks in intensive care, fighting for his life. No drugs were found on the premises.

It was later learned that the Federal Customs Service, the DEA and the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego had relied on an informant who was known to be untrustworthy and who claimed Carlson's garage contained 2,500 kilograms of cocaine (a large amount which would have taken most of the garage) and four armed guards. The agents conducted the raid in spite of the fact they could see the informant's information was erroneous.

As of this writing, none of the federal agents involved in the incident have been sanctioned, nor has Mr. Carlson been compensated for his injuries.

SINA BRUSH
Just after dawn on September 5, 1991, some sixty agents from DEA, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), and National Guard, complete with painted faces and camouflage and accompanied by another twenty or more National Guard troops with a light armored vehicle, raided the homes of Sina Bush and two of her neighbors near Mountainair, New Mexico. Brush and her daughter were asleep. Hearing noises outside, Ms. Brush got up and was only half-way across the room when the door was kicked in by agents. Clad only in their underwear, Ms. Brush and her daughter were handcuffed and forced to kneel in middle of the room while agents searched the house. No drugs were found. Just as in the Carlson case, the police had obtained a warrant using information furnished by an unreliable informant and had entered Brush's home without knocking first.

DONALD SCOTT
On October 2, 1992, DEA agents and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department staged a raid on the Scott ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, California. When Scott emerged carrying a gun, a deputy sheriff shot and killed him. Although agents claimed they were searching for marijuana plants, none were found. The Border Patrol, which had participated in the investigative work leading up to the raid, later claimed they were looking for undocumented aliens. None were found.

An independent investigation by the Ventura County District Attorney's Office concluded that the Sheriff's Department was motivated, in part, by a desire to seize and forfeit Scott's ranch. The investigation also questioned the DEA's claim that marijuana was observed through aerial surveillance.

BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS POLICE
In the fall of 1993, the Associated Press reviewed 17 complaints of brutality filed in six Western reservations against the Bureau of Indian Affairs police. They included complaints of choking, improper use of mace, and broken limbs. After six months investigation the AP found that "BIA police officers routinely use force when arresting suspects and are rarely disciplined for assaulting them."

In another case which occurred in 1991, Milton Trosper, an Arapaho Indian, was seriously injured by BIA police who broke his arm during an incident on the Wind river Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest against Trosper were dropped by the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Court, and in 1993 Trosper's civil suit against the government was settled for damages.

According to the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department, although the BIA, with only 412 officers, is the smallest federal police force, it engenders the second highest number of complaints of misconduct. The BIA has no internal affairs unit and no complaint procedure.

IMMIGRATION LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS
The Justice Department receives the largest number of complaints of federal police misconduct against Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents, particularly Border Patrol Officers. A 1992 report by Americas Watch, entitled "Brutality Unchecked," documented "appalling" levels of misconduct in which "(b)eatings, rough physical treatment, and racially motivated verbal are routine." Acts of abuse included unjustified shootings, torture and sexual abuse. In a second report issued in May 1993, Americas Watch found that "the abuses continue and current mechanisms intended to curtail abuses and discipline officers are woefully inadequate."

THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS
Last year's tragic confrontation between the Branch Davidians and federal agents has been reviewed by both the Treasury and Justice Departments. While these reviews find fault with the planning and execution of the government's attack on the Waco compound, they both accept the notion that armed confrontation was unavoidable. This is in spite of the fact that several independent experts who participated in the reviews seriously questioned the assault's inevitability.

For example, Alan Stone, a Harvard Professor of Psychiatry and Law, disagreed with "the view within the FBI and in the official reports that suggest the tragedy was unavoidable." In his report, he noted that the FBI's own behavioral experts on the scene advised against the use of "all-out psycho-physiological warfare" and the abandonment of "any serious effort to reach a negotiated solution." But FBI ignores this advice, and launched a paramilitary attack that jeopardized the lives of the very children whose health and safety it claimed it wanted to protect. In particular, Professor Stone criticized the use of toxic levels of CS gas over a period of 48-hours in a building occupied by so many children. As Professor Stone writes, "The question is: did 'military' mentality overtake the FBI?"

Another independent expert, Professor Nancy Ammerman of Princeton University, pointed out in her report that the FBI did not consult "a single...expert on the Branch Davidians or other marginal religious movements..." She also noted that the psychological warfare tactics employed by the FBI, including the sounds of dying rabbits, the use of flood lights, the helicopters hovering overhead, were not favored by the Bureau's own Behavior Science Service Unit. In fact the Unit advised that the "ever increasing tactical presence...could eventually be counter productive and could result in loss of life."

A third independent expert, New York University Professor of Psychiatry Robert Caco, questioned whether the military model used by the agents for the assault was "an appropriate model for dealing with a group such as the Branch Davidians."

At this time it is not clear that the reviews conducted by the Treasury and Justice Departments will lead to any meaningful changes in the way the FBI or Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) will handle situations in the future.

RANDY WEAVER
Randy Weaver became a fugitive in 1992 after the BATF tried to compel him to infiltrate a neo-Nazi organization. BATF agents targeted white separatist Weaver, a veteran with no criminal record, because they erroneously believed him to be a member of the organization. A BATF informer then convinced Weaver to saw off two shotguns and then sell them to him. The BATF then told Weaver he would be indicted on gun charges unless he served as a government informant. After receiving inconsistent information concerning his trial date from the court clerk, and fearful that the government intended to harm his family, Weaver failed to appear in court, remaining with his family in his isolated mountain cabin in Idaho.

The U.S. Marshal's Service attempted to apprehend Weaver. In August 1992 the Weaver's dog began to bark at six camouflaged marshals in the vicinity of the cabin who were carrying fully automatic assault weapons. When Weaver's fourteen-year-old son went out investigate, the marshals shot the dog. In an exchange of gunfire, Weaver's son was shot in the back and killed, and a deputy marshal was killed.

The FBI Hostage Rescue Team arrived the following day and issued extraordinary orders to its agents to shoot any armed adult on sight whether or not he posed an immediate danger. No attempt was made to talk with Weaver. When Weaver, his teenage daughter and a friend went from the cabin to an outbuilding where the son's body lay, an FBI sharpshooter opened fire, killing Weaver's wife as she stood in the cabin doorway holding her 10-month-old daughter. Nine days later, Weaver and his friend Kevin Harris, surrendered and were charged with the murder of the U.S. Marshal and criminal conspiracy.

Ultimately, a federal jury acquitted Weaver and Harris of all charges, except for Weaver's failure to appear for trial on the original gun charges. Judge Edward J. Lodge fined the FBI, charging that the Bureaus's conduct had "served to obstruct the administration of justice" and that "The actions of the Government, acting through the FBI evidence a callous disregard for the rights of the defendants and the interests of justice."

We recognize that the majority of federal officers strive, often under dangerous and demanding circumstances, to carry out their duties in a restrained, lawful and professional manner. But the cases described above demonstrate the need for leadership and accountability in order to prevent future incidents of abuse.

Therefore, we urge you to appoint a national commission composed of law enforcement experts, constitutional scholars, criminal defense lawyers and prosecutors, judges, representatives of federal law enforcement professional and labor organizations, and representatives of organizations that monitor police practices. Several of the undersigned organizations can provide you with the names of potential commission members for your consideration.

For more than fifty years the federal government has provided leadership, training and resources in the ongoing effort to improve the nation's system of law enforcement. The creation of a high level national commission will contribute greatly to the continued improvement of federal police agencies by helping to ensure that federal police not only enforce the law in an effective, humane and constitutional manner, but that they also serve as models for local and state law enforcement agencies.


Sincerely,


Ira Glasser
Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union
132 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036

John Snyder
Public Affairs Director
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
Washington, D.C. 20003

Eric E. Sterling
President
The Criminal Justice Foundation
1899 L Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20036

Arnold S. Trebach
President
Drug Policy Foundation
4455 Connecticut Ave., NW Suite B-500
Washington, D.C. 20036

David Kopel
Research Director
Independence Institute
14142 Denver West Parkway, Suite 101
Golden, Colorado 80401

James Grew
President
International Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
1627 K Street, NW, 12th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20006

Mary Broderick
Director, Defender Division
National Legal Aid and Defender Association
1625 K Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, D.C. 20006

James J. Baker
Executive Director
National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Affairs
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, Virginia 22030

Alan Gottlieb
Founder
Second Amendment Foundation
12500 NE 10th Place
Belleview, Washington 98005

[johnb]

N.C. Sheriff Turns in Badge After Scandal

32 minutes ago Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!


By PAUL NOWELL, Associated Press Writer

LEXINGTON, N.C. - For nearly a decade, Gerald Hege was both loved and loathed as the larger-than-life embodiment of law enforcement in Davidson County. Then his career fell apart. Facing 15 felony counts in a corruption and abuse investigation, Hege pleaded guilty last week to two counts of obstruction of justice in a deal that kept him out of prison.



For a sheriff who kept inmates in pink jail cells and had deputies dress up in paramilitary uniforms, it was an ignominious end — and there was no trace of his flamboyant self when he slipped out a side door of the downtown courthouse and got into the back seat of his attorney's silver Chevrolet Suburban.


As his lawyers sped away, Hege's face was hidden by tinted windows.


In his heyday, Hege reveled in the attention his tough-on-crime message brought him.


The self-styled "toughest sheriff in America" gave press conferences from an office decked out like a military bunker and once sent out Christmas cards with a doctored photo of him holding the severed head of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).


He got a gig on Court TV and headed Republican tickets in this conservative county of 150,000 people just south of Winston-Salem.


His Web site declared Davidson County — best known for its furniture making and Lexington-style pork barbecue — to be "Hege Country."


In the days after his abrupt guilty plea, Hege has kept a low profile.


He did not respond to repeated interview requests by The Associated Press and did not answer knocks on the door of his home Thursday, although he is under house arrest.


He surfaced long enough to tell the Winston-Salem Journal: "There never was evidence that I took anything. I knew once you put yourself out there, they're going to get you to go. I was always prepared to be investigated."


He made a similar comment to Superior Court Judge Erwin Spainhour in court Monday.


"When you are the leader of anything, you are the man to take it on the chin," Hege said after entering his guilty plea. "When that happens, I accept my responsibility."


With his plea and resignation as sheriff, Hege avoided a trial on the corruption counts, as well as a court hearing to determine whether he should be removed from office.


Hege remains a divisive figure in Davidson County.


"He was always talking about stopping crime while the whole time he had his hand in the till," Lisa Hudson, 35, said shortly after Monday's guilty plea.


County commissioner Don Truell, a former police chief in the town of Thomasville who has said he may run for sheriff, remains a staunch Hege supporter.


"I used to see him at church every Sunday," Truell said. "He would meet with the kids and get down on the floor to talk to them. I think he is a compassionate man."


But affidavits prepared by Davidson County District Attorney Garry Frank described a different Hege — a sheriff who misused county funds, intimidated and threatened his own officers and endangered the public with his recklessness.

Hege, who was sheriff for nine years, was suspended in September after a grand jury handed up indictments charging that he directed officers to abuse suspects, pull over drivers based on race and vandalize the property of political opponents.

Thirteen of the criminal counts were dismissed under the plea agreement.

Spainhour sentenced Hege to three years intensive probation, starting with three months on house arrest, during which Hege must wear an electronic-monitoring device.

With the plea bargain, Hege avoided further charges against himself or members of his family.

"Everyone wants some closure and he was not just thinking of himself," defense lawyer Walter Jones said. "He did what was best for him and his family."

Hege, 55, narrowly won a third four-year term in November 2002, a year in which three of his officers were sent to federal prison for their involvement in a drug ring. Hege was not implicated.

That year, the sheriff's department also was criticized for its handling of the investigation of the death of a 2-year-old boy who was shot as he played in his driveway.

Through all his troubles, Hege maintained his tough guy image. A photograph on his Web site showed him wielding a pistol-grip, double-barreled shotgun. He sent out the Osama bin Laden Christmas cards after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Frank, the district attorney and a fellow Republican who once was close friends with Hege, knew it was crushing blow for Hege to turn in his badge.

"If you go from being the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America ... to a convicted felon, that's a pretty long and hard fall," Frank said.

[kellyc]

Former Libertarian Party official kills associate then self

Associated Press


HOOVER, Ala. - Police said a former Alabama Libertarian Party official shot and killed his business associate and then himself in the back of a Hoover doctor's office.

Hoover police Capt. A.C. Roper said the apparent murder-suicide occurred about 8:45 a.m. Wednesday when Hoover Family Medicine employees heard gunshots.

Police identified the shooter as Jeff Allen, 46, of Hoover. Allen ran unsuccessfully for the Hoover City Council in 2000 and the U.S. Senate in 2002. He was vice chairman of the Alabama Libertarian Party when he ran against Republican U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions.

Police said Allen shot Darren Keith Palmer, 44, of Hoover. Palmer was a stock trader whom an investor said lost about $750,000 for some professionals in the past.

Police said they did not know what caused Allen to shoot Palmer and then himself.

They said Allen apparently was working for or with Palmer.

Birmingham City Councilman Dr. Jimmy Blake owns the clinic were the shooting occurred.

Blake said Palmer had been leasing space in the back of the clinic for less than a year, and Allen started working there about six weeks ago. Blake said they provided stock market information to professionals.

"This really comes as quite a shock," he said. "Yesterday, he was in a wonderful mood - looked good and smiling and seemed just fine."

Blake was not at the clinic when the shooting occurred.

Roper said that after gunfire was heard, one employee went to investigate and was told by Allen to go back up front and call 911. Blake said the employee locked the door to the back offices and called police, who cleared the building and found both men dead.

One was in an office and the other in a hallway. Police said both had gunshot wounds to the head.

---

Information from: The Birmingham News

[johnb]

Given the way you and others stereotype cops as "all good" because some percentage are Kelly, I would have to ask if you believe:

1-all Libertarians are suicidal.
2-all Libertarians are murderers.
3-all doctor's offices are crime scenes.
4-all residents of Hoover, Alabama are murderers.
5-all residents of Hoover, Alabama are suicidal.
6-all residents of Alabama are murderers.
7-all residents of Alabma are suicidal.
8-all doctors offices in Alabama are populated by stiffs.
9-all unsuccessfull candidates for public office are homicidal.
10-all unsucessful candidates for public office are suicidal.
11-all stock brokers are homicidal.
12-all stock brokers are suicical.
13-all Libertarian stock brokers in doctor's offices in Hoover, Alabama are suicidal but would feel lonely going it alone.

[kellyc]

You must not be taking your medicine. I have never said that all cops are good. I do however tend to give them, as I do any other person the benefit of the doubt.

Kelly

[johnb]

Giving the individual the benefit of the doubt is certainly a necessary lubricant to social interaction, however, when a gauntlet is thrown down, "Zero Tolerance", it forces a standard upon everyone that removes any reasonable possiblity for exercising "the benefit of the doubt" standard.

"Zero Tolerance" cannot co-exist with "the benefit of the doubt". The two are mutually exclusive standards. If you read Windy Hunters words last time he had one of the "Zero Tolerance" press releases you'd see his standard does not permit "the benefit of the doubt". Whether his employees toe the line is a separate question, but he is the chief, they're his rules to make.