Where Everybody Knows You're Numb

Psych Lit · Guru

RE: to protect and serve

Nightowlhoot3 · Guru

Psych Lit wrote:

... and gloria allreds slamming of this woman is just beyond the pale. i used to respect her but her vengeful persecution of this woman goes way over the line.

I've never been a fan of Gloria Allred. Sure, okay, some of the cases she picks up are (using the word reluctantly) "honorable" but to me she's ALWAYS seemed a mercedes ambulance chaser and publicity hound. I always enjoy watching her at press conferences postioning herself so that she's ALWAYS in the camera shot trained on the microphone, no matter who's actually speaking. I'll bet the wallpaper in her bathroom is a collection of newspaper photos of herself. She's not an attorney, really -- not any more, she's a "media event" unto herself.

Psych Lit · Guru

Nightowlhoot3 wrote:

Psych Lit wrote:
TANGENT #1:

This article reminded me ... OKLAHOMA's legislature has just declared OK a "sovereign" state too (I think, over riding the Governor's veto.) Succession seems a little geographically odd for them, but if it should come up, as it has in Texas ... I dunno, the older (and I guess crankier) I get, the more I begin to think "So let 'em GO, if that's what they really want!" If it takes the proposition of NO LONGER BEING PART OF AMERICA for the citizens in some of these states to wake up and join the twenty first century, then that's what it takes, and if this federal government is so abhorrent, because it does "RADICAL" things like uphold the US Constitution, that they just can't stomach being associated with it any more, then fine -- give us back our federal money, we'll arrange for detours around your state(s) and carry on without you. God knows there are some federal laws which which I don't agree, but there were laws in 1776 with which not everyone agreed. Deal with it, and if it really bugs you, work to change it.

yeah, i think this speaks to the polarization thats occurring in this country and most of it is fueled by misrepresentation and scare tactics and preying on the uneducated or the intellectually lazy who choose to not do the legwork themselves and rely on scare tv for their info. i think the rest of us had difficulties sitting back and watching what happened over the 8 years of the bush administration and yet the blue states are still a part of the whole (tho vermont and new hampshire spoke of doing this back in 07.) there are times tho when i fantasize about having the bitter and the hateful and the ignorant all go and form their own country and leave the rest of us alone:)

Tangent #2: Here in Arizona the other day, a police officer on duty at a middle school campus broke up a fist fight by TAZING a kid. The police are standing behind the officer, saying officially he used the force he thought necessary to stop the fight. What the HELL??

tasing holds so much potential for abuse. imo these should not be used except as an alternative to deadly force. theres way too much of this going on and so much of it has to do with dissent or speech. police, imo, do not have the right to tase someone for talking back to them nor do they have any business tasing someone who is exercising their rights to assemble or speak and yet this happens regularly. there have been hundreds of deaths reported as a result of this practice and still the idea exists that this is a non lethal form of control. it may be less lethal than a glock shot to the head but it kills enough people each year to warrant better guidelines for usage. i remember a few years back reading that they had tased a 6 year old kid. if a police officer cant pick a 6 year old up and control him then mebbe they should be looking at other career choices.
heres my tangent for the night. im listening to nancy graces show because i cant find the remote and im too lazy to go looking and shes off on an octomom tangent. now i could give you a thousand reasons why the octomom makes my skin crawl and why i think shes short a few cards in the deck BUT i find this whole aspect of tv personalities like nancy grace trying and convicting people on her show on the basis of gossip for ratings to be the far worse crime. and gloria allreds slamming of this woman is just beyond the pale. i used to respect her but her vengeful persecution of this woman goes way over the line. shes now suing her, not for something shes done, but for something she may someday do and that is to have a reality show about her life. she wants the earnings earmarked for the children or thats what she says she wants but she aint going after that woman with the 19 kids and shes not going after the other reality stars on shows like jon and kate. really tho its this whole nebby quality that i find horrid. i had to chuckle when nancy grace asks allread why the octomom threw her out of her home and allred says gee i dont know youd have to ask the octomom. theres a lawyer on who is basically saying hey what are we puritans going after people for what they might do? and another lawyer is concurring with this and good ole nebby nancy is drowning them out with her own agenda and we wont even go into the people that shes convicted on her show who have yet to go to trial. how in the world can these folks have a fair trial when shes poisoned the well so to speak. whole thing makes me ill.

Nightowlhoot3 · Guru

Psych Lit wrote:

TENAHA, Texas (CNN) -- Roderick Daniels was traveling through East Texas in October 2007 when, he says, he was the victim of a highway robbery.
Police in the small East Texas town of Tenaha are accused of unjustly taking valuables from motorists.
(etc.)

TANGENT #1:

This article reminded me ... OKLAHOMA's legislature has just declared OK a "sovereign" state too (I think, over riding the Governor's veto.) Succession seems a little geographically odd for them, but if it should come up, as it has in Texas ... I dunno, the older (and I guess crankier) I get, the more I begin to think "So let 'em GO, if that's what they really want!" If it takes the proposition of NO LONGER BEING PART OF AMERICA for the citizens in some of these states to wake up and join the twenty first century, then that's what it takes, and if this federal government is so abhorrent, because it does "RADICAL" things like uphold the US Constitution, that they just can't stomach being associated with it any more, then fine -- give us back our federal money, we'll arrange for detours around your state(s) and carry on without you. God knows there are some federal laws which which I don't agree, but there were laws in 1776 with which not everyone agreed. Deal with it, and if it really bugs you, work to change it.

Tangent #2: Here in Arizona the other day, a police officer on duty at a middle school campus broke up a fist fight by TAZING a kid. The police are standing behind the officer, saying officially he used the force he thought necessary to stop the fight. What the HELL??

Psych Lit · Guru

update on the texas piracy squad and the power of the press. the county is returning this guys money. they still deny that they did anything wrong despite the 3 million theyve taken from mostly black and latino motorists.

Psych Lit · Guru

nesea wrote:

scary stuff.

There's something similar going on in this area .. a guy with a badge is telling elderly homeowners he's a safety inspector and they're letting this guy in their house to perform a safety survey, when in reality they suspect he's just casing the place.

So now the question becomes, is he dumb enough to go back?

lol .. I say, never underestimate the stupidity of criminals.

yikes. i hope they catch him soon and that no elderly people are harmed by some home invasion thing. and oh yeah stupid criminal videos on the net. gotta love em.

nesea · Senior Member

scary stuff.

There's something similar going on in this area .. a guy with a badge is telling elderly homeowners he's a safety inspector and they're letting this guy in their house to perform a safety survey, when in reality they suspect he's just casing the place.

So now the question becomes, is he dumb enough to go back?

lol .. I say, never underestimate the stupidity of criminals.

Psych Lit · Guru

TENAHA, Texas (CNN) -- Roderick Daniels was traveling through East Texas in October 2007 when, he says, he was the victim of a highway robbery.

Police in the small East Texas town of Tenaha are accused of unjustly taking valuables from motorists.

1 of 2

The Tennessee man says he was ordered to pull his car over and surrender his jewelry and $8,500 in cash that he had with him to buy a new car.

But Daniels couldn't go to the police to report the incident.

The men who stopped him were the police.

Daniels was stopped on U.S. Highway 59 outside Tenaha, near the Louisiana state line. Police said he was driving 37 mph in a 35 mph zone. They hauled him off to jail and threatened him with money-laundering charges -- but offered to release him if he signed papers forfeiting his property.

"I actually thought this was a joke," Daniels told CNN.

But he signed.

"To be honest, I was five, six hundred miles from home," he said. "I was petrified." Watch CNN's Gary Tuchman try to question officials »

Now Daniels and other motorists who have been stopped by Tenaha police are part of a lawsuit seeking to end what plaintiff's lawyer David Guillory calls a systematic fleecing of drivers passing through the town of about 1,000.

Highway Robbery?

Out of the blue, drivers are pulled over. Their valuables taken ... hundreds of thousands of dollars worth. And you won't believe who's behind it all. "Highway Robbery," an AC360 investigation, tonight at 10 ET.

see full schedule »

"I believe it is a shakedown. I believe it's a piracy operation," Guillory said.

George Bowers, Tenaha's longtime mayor, says his police follow the law. And through her lawyers, Shelby County District Attorney Lynda Russell denied any impropriety.

Texas law allows police to confiscate drug money and other personal property they believe are used in the commission of a crime. If no charges are filed or the person is acquitted, the property has to be returned. But Guillory's lawsuit states that Tenaha and surrounding Shelby County don't bother to return much of what they confiscate.

Jennifer Boatright and Ron Henderson said they agreed to forfeit their property after Russell threatened to have their children taken away.

Like Daniels, the couple says they were carrying a large amount of cash --- about $6,000 -- to buy a car. When they were stopped in Tenaha in 2007, Boatright said, Russell came to the Tenaha police station to berate her and threaten to separate the family.

"I said, 'If it's the money you want, you can take it, if that's what it takes to keep my children with me and not separate them from us. Take the money,' " she said.

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The document Henderson signed, which bears Russell's signature, states that in exchange for forfeiting the cash, "no criminal charges shall be filed ... and our children shall not be turned over" to the state's child protective services agency.

Maryland resident Amanee Busbee said she also was threatened with losing custody of her child after being stopped in Tenaha with her fiancé and his business partner. They were headed to Houston with $50,000 to complete the purchase of a restaurant, she said.

"The police officer would say things to me like, 'Your son is going to child protective services because you are not saying what we need to hear,' " Busbee said.

Guillory, who practices in nearby Nacogdoches, Texas, estimates authorities in Tenaha seized $3 million between 2006 and 2008, and in about 150 cases -- virtually all of which involved African-American or Latino motorists -- the seizures were improper.

"They are disproportionately going after racial minorities," he said. "My take on the matter is that the police in Tenaha, Texas, were picking on and preying on people that were least likely to fight back."

Daniels told CNN that one of the officers who stopped him tried on some of his jewelry in front of him.

"They asked me, 'What you are doing with this ring on?' I said I had bought that ring. I paid good money for that ring," Daniels said. "He took the ring off my finger and put it on his finger and told me how did it look. He put on my jewelry."

Texas law states that the proceeds of any seizures can be used only for "official purposes" of district attorney offices and "for law-enforcement purposes" by police departments. According to public records obtained by CNN using open-records laws, an account funded by property forfeitures in Russell's office included $524 for a popcorn machine, $195 for candy for a poultry festival, and $400 for catering.

In addition, Russell donated money to the local chamber of commerce and a youth baseball league. A local Baptist church received two checks totaling $6,000.

And one check for $10,000 went to Barry Washington, a Tenaha police officer whose name has come up in several complaints by stopped motorists. The money was paid for "investigative costs," the records state.

Washington would not comment for this report but has denied all allegations in his answer to Guillory's lawsuit.

"This is under litigation. This is a lawsuit," he told CNN.

Russell refused requests for interviews at her office and at a fundraiser for a volunteer fire department in a nearby town, where she also sang. But in a written statement, her lawyers said she "has denied and continues to deny all substantive allegations set forth."

Russell "has used and continues to use prosecutorial discretion ... and is in compliance with Texas law, the Texas constitution, and the United States Constitution," the statement said.

Bowers, who has been Tenaha's mayor for 54 years, is also named in the lawsuit. But he said his employees "will follow the law."

"We try to hire the very best, best-trained, and we keep them up to date on the training," he said.

The attention paid to Tenaha has led to an effort by Texas lawmakers to tighten the state's forfeiture laws. A bill sponsored by state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, would bar authorities from using the kind of waivers Daniels, Henderson and Busbee were told to sign.

"To have law enforcement and the district attorney essentially be crooks, in my judgment, should infuriate and does infuriate everyone," Whitmire said. His bill has passed the Senate, where he is the longest-serving member, and is currently before the House of Representatives.

Busbee, Boatright and Henderson were able to reclaim their property after hiring lawyers. But Daniels is still out his $8,500.

"To this day, I don't understand why they took my belongings off me," he said.