New Jersey cops wore disguises to vandalize two vehicles owned by a man who filed complaints against them days earlier, prosecutors say

Two vengeance-seeking New Jersey police officers angry vandalized a local resident’s vehicle out of spite when he filed complaints against them, according to investigators. 

Asbury Park Police officers Stephen Martinsen, 29, and Thomas Dowling, 26, have been charged with multiple felony counts of conspiracy, criminal mischief and weapons-related offenses for illegal use of a knife, authorities announced on Wednesday.  

They could face up to 20 years in New Jersey State Prison if convicted on all charges.

Dowling has since been fired. Martinsen has been suspended without pay.

‘If these allegations are proven true, this is kind of the textbook definition of a breach in the position of trust in the authority that are given the people in law enforcement,’ Monmouth County Prosecutor Chris Swendeman told app.com.

Keep reading

The New York Times just published a bizarre pro-pedophile article

According to the NY times, showing up at the door of a supposed 13-year-old girl’s house with a pack of condoms on your person is perfectly acceptable behavior and should entail no legal consequences whatsoever.

This is not the first time the Times has engaged in apologetics for pedophilia, but lately, there seems to be a shift from the theoretical to the practical. It’s a very different discussion to talk about people’s potential attractions to pre-pubescent children than to talk about people acting on those attractions.

Keep reading

WANT PROSECUTORIAL REFORM? START WITH CURTAILING THE INFLUENCE OF POLICE UNIONS.

As millions march, calling for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others, the responsibility for holding their killers accountable lies squarely in the hands of prosecutors. The will of the people is to have accountability for all criminal acts, regardless of who the actor is or their profession. That is the duty of a prosecutor. But all too often, prosecutors have failed to fulfill that duty, often declining to pursue charges against law enforcement, let alone securing a conviction. Those failures have struck deep blows to public trust in the justice system. Rebuilding that trust will require not simply policing reform, but also greater confidence in prosecutorial independence and the integrity of investigating and charging of police misconduct. And that confidence, as well as independence, can only be achieved through an end to financial ties between prosecutors and police unions. 

Keep reading

Democrats are Officially Republicans

The Democrats claim to be the opposition party, but they seek out Republicans, hate the left of their own party, and don’t seem to care if they lose the election.

“Biden’s slogan may as well be He’s Not Trump because that is all the Democrats had to say.”

The Democratic Party has ended any debate or dispute about its true nature. It is a party representing neo-liberal interests and international gangsterism, just like their putative opposition, the Republican party.

Even a cursory observation of the recent Democratic National Convention proves that this assessment is correct. There were paeans of love to the late warmonger John McCain and even an appearance from his widow. A special segment was set aside for Republicans like John Kasich whose speech was used in part to beat down progressives and make clear that Joe Biden wants nothing to do with them. Not to be outdone with Kasich and McCain’s ghost, war criminal Colin Powell was dragged out to put the bipartisan imperialist seal of approval on Biden.

The convention was high on production value but skimpy on details. Speaker after speaker repeated that Donald Trump is a very bad, terrible, awful, pandemic denier who cozies up to dictators. They didn’t say how they would undo his evil deeds or make life better for the average person in this country. The awful Biden slogan of Build Back Better is meaningless. That of course is why they use it. The slogan may as well be He’s Not Trump because that is all the Democrats had to say.

“War criminal Colin Powell was dragged out to put the bipartisan imperialist seal of approval on Biden.”

Of course the truth can’t be hidden for long. Ted Kaufman  was Biden’s Senate chief of staff and successor after he became vice president. He now heads the Biden transition team. Kaufman told the Wall Street Journal that no one should expect increases in government spending should Biden win. “When we get in, the pantry is going to be bare. When you see what Trump’s done to the deficit…forget about Covid-19, all the deficits that he built with the incredible tax cuts. So we’re going to be limited.” Government spending is exactly what people in this country need to recover economically. Yet they are told to expect nothing of the sort. More austerity is coming our way regardless of the electoral outcome.

Keep reading

Ex-Florida county tax collector faces child sex-trafficking charge

Florida county’s former tax collector allegedly paid for sex with an underage girl and tapped the state’s motor vehicle database for records on people with whom he was engaged in “sugar daddy” relationships, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Joel Greenberg, a Republican, was the elected Seminole County tax collector until his resignation in June.

Prosecutors leveled the charges in a new indictment unsealed in Orlando Federal Court that accuses Greenberg of sex trafficking a child.

The charge involves a girl, age 14 to 17, WESH-TV reported, citing an attorney representing Greenberg. It is punishable by a 10-year prison sentence.

Keep reading

The DNC and the Politics of Betrayal

The political and moral bankruptcy of the Democratic Party was on full display last week. First it was the convention of the Democratic Party, where the progressive wing of the party was pushed to the margins while the victorious, neoliberal right wing engaged in a surreal spectacle that came off oblivious to the economic, social and political crisis the country has been experiencing. The second thing that happened was the emergency reconvening of the U.S. House of Representatives to “save the post office.”

On the night Kamala Harris accepted the nomination as vice president, the Democratic Party devoted itself to demonstrating it was more militantly aggressive in its commitment to military threats, in the use of force and in reclaiming the U.S. global dominance that Trump supposedly has squandered. Neocons from the Republican Party also spoke to assure the country Joe Biden would commit to a stronger NATO, to completing the military pivot to Asia, and to standing up to the demon of the moment—Vladimir Putin.

The inspiring stories of democratic renewal and of happy days being just around the corner once Joe is in office seemed strangely disconnected from the fact that Congress had gone on vacation, leaving millions in economic limbo because the federal enhanced unemployment benefit had expired. Yet the House was called back by Nancy Pelosi not to pass a bill to end the confusion around extended unemployment and to protect against evictions, but to save the postal service so nothing would get in the way of electing the political class.

The racism, militarism, and materialism that Dr. King warned would be the diseases that would kill the body politic of the United States have created a zombie democracy.

War, the political betrayal of the working class, and an inane political posturing in the face of an intractable crisis are the politics of a society beyond salvation.

Keep reading