During the early morning hours of July 13th, 2012 Miguel Montanez was driving to work when a Hayes County, Texas Sheriff’s Office Swat Team truck hit him head-on. Before he had any clue about what was happening, a second police vehicle hit him from behind, a flashbang grenade went off in his passenger seat and a bullet went through his windshield. It seems that Miguel had been the recipient of a SWAT team assault that totaled his BMW.
In no time he was surrounded by assault rifle-wielding police officers. Within seconds the officers realized they had the wrong person (the suspect they were looking for drove a green BMW; Miguel’s is blue), but that didn’t stop them from handcuffing and detaining him for the next half hour while being questioned.
Hayes County’s insurance carrier paid for the totaled car, but when Miguel’s medical bills started showing up the county stopped communicating with him. Miguel suffered a herniated disc in his back and psychological trauma (ya think?). A lawsuit has been filed against the county as well as the nine officers who were involved in the incident.
I can’t believe SWAT police are now attacking unsuspecting cars while they’re driving down the road, ramming into them and throwing grenades in the vehicles. They even shot a bullet at him, attempting to kill him. This is unbelievable police abuse.
San Antonio Park police violently beat a woman who had walked into the wrong room at a gas station, then arrested her brother for trying to video record the altercation.
They also deleted the footage from her brother’s camera while charging the woman with felony assault on a peace officer.
But her brother managed to recover the footage that contradicts the police version of the story.
Christina Oliver, who ended up with a broken nose and black eye, told her story to KENS 5:
Oliver had stopped to use the restroom inside a inside a Shell Gas Station late Saturday night on the her way home from celebrating Fiesta downtown. She said she accidentally walked into a stock room at the back of the store instead.
“When I realized it was for employees, I came back into the store,” Oliver said.
When she walked out, two Park Police officers confronted her and asked if she had stolen any items from the store.
According to a San Antonio police report, Oliver used a closed fist to punch one of the officers in the throat. It’s a detail Oliver vehemently denies.
“He punched me first,” she said. “He punched me in the eye.”
A witness who doesn’t appear to be related to Oliver left the following comment on the KENS 5 story:
Ask him to send HB 1608 to the House floor for a vote. All House bills must be on a floor calendar by Tuesday May 7th or they cannot get a vote.
Call today!
HB 1608 will require government to get a warrant based on probable cause if it wants to access detailed personal location data held by your cell phone company. For most of us, our cell phones know more about our lives than we do — who we spoke to, everywhere we’ve been, how long we were there, where we went next. All this data is held by the cell phone company and provided to law enforcement for a fee under a legal framework conceived before the invention of smart phones or even the World Wide Web.
HB 1608 returns the legal framework governing location data to basic constitutional principles. If I keep a diary in my house, in which I record all my daily activities, that diary is protected from search and seizure without a warrant. The record of all my daily activities as recorded by my smart phone and retained by my cell company deserves the same protection.
HB 1608 enjoys the support of four joint authors and 103 coauthors out of 150 House members, including a majority of representatives from both parties and 11 of the 15 members of the Calendars Committee. But this bill won’t even get a vote if it isn’t reported out of Calendars in the next few days. Time is of the essence.
A phone call takes 30 seconds: Just tell Rep. Hunter’s staff that you want HB 1608 sent to the House floor for a vote immediately before time runs out!
Interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano and Lew Rockwell on the police state, the “security industrial complex”, police militarization, and drones.
“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is exercised under cover of law, and with the colors of justice …” —U.S. v. Jannotti, 673 F.2d 578, 614 (3d Cir. 1982)
Give me your honest definition of a police state, and I will introduce you to US legislation and government behavior that appeals to your definition. I'm serious.
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On this blog, you will find political and legal quotes, political content, of course police brutality, and evidence of the existence of a police state in the USA. You'll also find a blatant and
embarrassing record of failure in the Criminal Justice System. This blog is not for conspiracy theory.
