The Untouchables: NY Senate Passes Bill Making 'Annoying' Police A Crime.

*Source: RT

Members of the New York Police Department (NYPD) scuffle with protestors as they guard the entrance to a Citibank as Occupy Wall Street demonstrators march along 42nd Street to protest various businesses during May Day on May 1, 2012 in New York.(AFP Photo / Monika Graff)

The New York State Senate passed a controversial bill on Wednesday that aims to classify ‘aggravated harassment of a police officer’ as a crime, but will it give the authorities the green light for strong-arm tactics if passed?

Sponsored by Senator Joe Griffo, Bill S.2402 would make it a felony to “harass, annoy, or threaten a police officer while on duty.”  
 
“Our system of laws is established to protect the foundations of our society,” Senator Griffo said. “Police officers who risk their lives every day in our cities and on our highways deserve every possible protection, and those who treat them with disrespect, harass them and create situations that can lead to injuries deserve to pay a price for their actions.”

Griffo said that New York police require extra safeguards because “too many people in our society have lost the respect they need to have for a police officer…. We need to make it very clear that when a police officer is performing his duty, every citizen needs to comply and that refusal to comply carries a penalty.”

The bill, which will now move to the State Assembly, would make it a crime for a person to make any type of physical action aimed at intimidating a police officer. Harassment of a police officer would be recognized as a Class E Felony, punishable by up to four years in prison.

A screenshot of the bill

Not surprisingly, the bill has won accolades from police.

“Professionally, I am grateful to see this bill pass through the Senate,” said Utica Police Department Chief Mark Williams, as quoted by the House Majority Press. “Our police officers have a very dangerous job and need the support of our government leaders to help make them safe.”

Williams believes that all too often, individuals are “physically challenging police officers in the line of duty.” Currently, in instances where an officer is physically attacked but does not sustain a physical injury, the only possible charge is a violation, he explained.

These consequences are too lenient for offenders, and send the wrong message to the public, Williams continued.

However, questions may arise as to where the boundaries should be drawn concerning the right of individuals to report on incidents of excessive police force, for example.

In May 2011, New York homeowner Emily Good was arrested by Rochester police while standing in her yard and videotaping police officers who were performing a traffic stop in front of her house.  

When one of the officers asked Good what she was doing, Good replied, “I’m just recording what you’re doing; it’s my right.”  The officer then told Good that “we don’t feel safe with you standing right behind us while we’re doing a traffic stop,” and ordered her to go inside her house.  

When Good insisted on her right to stand in her yard, she was arrested, handcuffed, and taken away in a police car.  She was later charged with obstructing governmental administration.

NYPD Cannibal Arrested for Compiling Database of Women he Planned to Kidnap, Cook and Eat.

*Source: The Intel Hub





By JG Vibes
theintelhub.com
October 25, 2012

Since police officers are held above the law and are able to get away with so much, sick people who want to do bad things are naturally drawn towards these positions because of the legal protection that it offers.
Stories in the news about police brutality and random tazer attacks are now an everyday occurrence, but just this week an NYPD officer has been arrested for planning to carry out crimes that are on the same scale as a serial killer.

Gilberto Valle, a 28 year old, six-year veteran of the NYPD was arrested Wednesday by the FBI for compiling a database of women that he planned to kidnap, cook and eat, as well as stalking them and planning the attacks.

ABC has obtained the criminal complaint against Valle, which alleges that he and a co-conspirator, named only as ‘CC-1,” corresponded over email and instant messages to create a file of over 100 potential victims, all women.

The FBI alleges that Valle used the National Crime Information Center database to compile the list, and that Valle had no authority to use the database. The FBI spoke to 10 of the women, who confirmed that they knew Valle in some capacity.

According to The Smoking Gun:
“The complaint alleges that Valle illegally used federal and state law enforcement databases to “locate potential victims,” and that he surveilled some of these women at their homes and places of employment.
He also allegedly drafted an “operation plan” to abduct and cook one woman, and researched “methods of disabling and drugging women.”

In one July communication, Valle wrote that he was contemplating tying one “tasty” woman “onto some kind of apparatus…cook her over a low heat, keep her alive as long as possible.” When asked about the size of his oven, Valle replied, “Big enough to fit one of these girls if I folded their legs.”

Agents found a document on Valle’s computer titled “Abducting and Cooking [Victim-1]: a Blueprint.” The document included the woman’s name, date of birth, height, weight, and bra size, along with a “Materials Needed” section (car, chloroform, and rope).

Valle’s computer also revealed that he and a co-conspirator “negotiated and agreed to a price at which Valle would kidnap” another woman, who is referred to as “Victim-2” in the complaint.  Valle wrote,  “$5,000 and she is all yours,” noting that, “I’m putting my neck on the line here. If something goes wrong somehow, I am in deep shit.” He subsequently added, “I think I would rather not get involved in the rape. You paid for her. She is all yours and I don’t want to be tempted the next time I abduct a girl.”

Congress To Cut 9/11 First Responders' Benefits

*Source: RT

Only days after a national health care act was expanded to provide coverage to September 11 first responders that have been diagnosed with cancer in the wake of the terrorist attacks, the future of the federal plan is now up in the air.

When US President Barack Obama signed his name to the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act in early 2011, he authorized the government to assist with medical bills incurred by emergency workers who have developed problems in the years since the World Trade Center was destroyed in 2001. Under automatic budget cuts expected to start next year, though, the health care program could be drastically cut short and stripped of millions of dollars in funding.

Under current plans, the automatic sequestering expected to save the country $1.2 trillion over the next ten years will do so by significantly trimming funding from the Zadroga Act. Huffington Post reports that $38 million worth of aid could be cut from the program in 2013 alone, with as much as $300 million in assistance being lost altogether over the current planned lifespan of the program.

Zadroga, a NYPD officer that responded to the Twin Towers after the attack, passed away in 2006 from illnesses he is suspected to have picked up while working in the toxic ruble after 9/11. Roughly 20,000 gallons of jet fuel, 100,000 tons of organic debris and 100,000 gallons of heating and diesel oil were ignited on 9/11 after two airlines collided into both towers at the World Trade Center, NBC News reports.

On the anniversary of the attacks only one week ago, the government added around 50 different types of cancers to the list of diseases covered under the act that now bears Zadroga’s name, but the automatic budget cuts expected to occur next year are expected to drastically defund the program and leave survivors once more scrambling to pay for medical bills and routine cancer screenings, which would otherwise be covered under the bill.

"This is unacceptable," John Feal, a construction worker who lost half his foot at Ground Zero in the cleanup, tells Huffington Post. "This is just another slap in the face from Washington, D.C."

"Last week, Republicans and Democrats talked about remembering 9/11 and unity all across the nation, and all that patriotic stuff, and now we're getting this thrown on our lap,” he says.

"We just got cancer added, and we don't even know if we have enough money for cancer, and they want to take money away from us.”

Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a state lawmaker for New York, voted against the sequester and now explains to HuffPo how Congress’ shortcut to pay the country’s bills is burdening Americans who have long been victimized.

"Nothing exemplifies this unbalanced and draconian approach to deficit reduction more than asking our heroes who have already sacrificed so much to sacrifice yet again so that Republican leadership could appease their special interests. Our 9/11 heroes who answered the call of duty should be treated with the same dignity as our veterans. We need to come together and work towards a balanced approach that keeps struggling families from sacrificing the most,” she says.

NYPD at #nycggi: "Give Me F***ing Cuffs

Video contains arrests for jay walking, cops suppressing journalists by shinning a flash light in the camera and a stop and frisk. Another day in the life of protesters in NYC.



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Wrong addressee? Large stash of cocaine arrives at UN HQ.

*Source: Russia Today

Police in New York have seized two bags containing 16 kg of cocaine at the UN’s mail center. The unusual shipment had been sent from Mexico City and apparently was not intended to end up at the global organization’s headquarters.

In a statement on Thursday, a spokesman for UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said two suspicious mail bags had been intercepted by UN security personnel.

"The United Nations nor anyone located in the United Nations was the intended recipient of this delivery and the bags were not UN bags, diplomatic or other," Martin Nesirky said.

The investigation was turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration and New York Police Department, which confirmed that the substance inside the shipment was cocaine.

NYPD deputy commissioner, Paul Browne, said the drugs were found in a white bag that raised suspicions because it was stamped with a distorted UN logo.

He added that there was no name or address on the shipment which was sent from Mexico City via Cincinnati.

"It is my understanding that because there was no addressee, DHL just thought, well, that's the UN symbol so we should ship it on to UN headquarters and let them figure out who it was supposed to go to," Browne said as quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). He added that the UN bags were “obviously fakes.”

"The working theory now is that possibly it was never meant to have left Mexico at all," Browne said. "Somebody in Mexico is probably in trouble now having let a significant amount of cocaine out of their possession."

The bags contained about 14 hard-cover books which had been hollowed to create space for the cocaine, ABC reported.