Tag: police accountability

Texas Cops Realized They Raided the Wrong House. They Kept Searching Anyway.

In November of 2018, Lucil Basco of Bexar County, Texas, awoke to a thunderous boom, followed by a parade of eight cops barging through her front door. She was handcuffed, and, with her screaming child, removed from the premises. The officers soon realized they made a mistake: They had the wrong house, based on incorrect information from a confidential informant. Yet they continued the operation anyway.

Three of those Bexar County sheriff’s deputies—James Hancock, Jacob Rodriguez, and Bryan Smith—are not entitled to qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that allows state actors to violate your rights if the precise scenario in question has not yet been ruled unconstitutional in a prior court precedent. They can thus be sued for it, a federal court said this week.

But the case is a crash course in the levers available to the monopoly on state power—from the drug war, to surveillance, to no-knock entries, to botched warrants—and the importance of government accountability in such circumstances.

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Alleged Serial Rapist Cop Used Dating Apps to Find Victims, Drug Them, & Violently Rape Them

When women saw his profile on dating apps, they likely felt comfort knowing the blind date they were about to attend was with a cop. However, that Birmingham Alabama Police Department officer was accused last week of rape. Following a complaint submitted to the police department an investigation was initiated which involved Birmingham Police Department’s Tactical Operations Precinct, its Special Victim’s Unit, and investigators inside the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office. According to the evidence, it appears that officer Matthew Wilcox was a serial rapist.

A search warrant was obtained for Wilcox’ home which uncovered a cache of weapons and drugs. Wilcox, 37, was subsequently arrested and charged with 1st Degree rape, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of marijuana, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

Wilcox was transported to the Jefferson County Jail and later released when the officer, who was promptly relieved of his duties, posted bail in the amount of $26,000. Wilcox has been a member of the police department since 2019 and was assigned to patrol units.

Wilcox was allowed to resign from the Birmingham Police Department on Tuesday. Prior to joining the force in 2019, Wilcox served 9 years as a police officer with the University of Alabama Birmingham. Birmingham Police Department Chief Patrick Smith held a press conference and, one could conclude, was visibly shaken at the charges one of his officers was an alleged rapist. In a press conference held this week, Smith revealed some of the details of the investigation as well as his concerns Wilcox may have more victims who have not yet come forward.

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Hero Liberty Activist Killed By Police After Stopping Mass Shooter Who Just Killed a Cop

On Monday, a deranged gunman, 59-year-old Ronald Troyke, began what was about to be a deadly mass shooting. His first victim would be Arvada Police Officer Gordon Beesley, and, according to the reports that evening, his next victim would be liberty activist and friend to many members of the Free Thought Project, including this author, Johnny Hurley. But it didn’t quite unfold like the original reports claimed. Hurley was actually the hero who stopped the gunman and when other officers arrived on scene, one of them killed the hero.

Johnny Hurley was an outspoken activist for freedom and peace and he spent the last decade or more of his life seeking those goals for the world. His dedication to the preservation of life was so strong that it actually cost him his own life.

According to multiple witnesses, when the gunman, Troyke, began shooting, Hurley did not hesitate and ran straight into danger, eliminating the threat and saving countless lives.

“He did not hesitate; he didn’t stand there and think about it. He totally heard the gunfire, went to the door, saw the shooter and immediately ran in that direction,” witness Bill Troyanos said. “I just want to make sure his family knows how heroic he was.”

“He turned back and looked towards everybody at the restaurant and told us that he (Troyke) is coming, that he is coming back and that we should get inside,” another witness who asked not to be identified said. “I ran to the back of the store, closer to the alley, kind of ‘nooked’ myself in a corner just to feel safe.”

“Mr. Hurley shot him. I think I heard 6 shots from his gun, maybe 5,” Troyanos said.

To those who witnessed the shooting, Hurley was hailed as a hero. He had stopped the deadly threat and saved many lives in the process. But his time as a living hero was only brief. Moments after saving countless lives, Hurley would be killed by police who likely mistook him for the shooter.

Arvada Police Chief Link Strate said in a news conference Tuesday that Hurley was “a true hero who likely disrupted what could have been a larger loss of life,” but would not say it was police who shot him.

Though police refused to confirm it was them who shot Hurley, Denver7 Chief Investigator Tony Kovaleski reported that they confirmed through three informed, ranking sources — including two law enforcement sources — that it was indeed a cop who ended this hero’s life.

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Ashli Babbitt’s husband goes on TV to push for answer on who fatally shot wife in Capitol breach

The husband of Ashli Babbitt has gone on television to push forward the effort to learn the name of the police officer who fatally shot his wife during the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.

“Somebody up in D.C. knows,” Babbitt said Monday night on the Fox New Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “I think a lot of people know, but nobody is telling us. And the silence is deafening … I never expected to lose my wife to political violence.”

Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was fatally shot as she attempted to climb through the broken window of a door to the Speaker’s Lobby, just off the House floor. 

In April, the Justice Department announced that it would not seek charges against the officer who shot Babbitt, 35, following a “thorough investigation” by the Metropolitan Police Department. The department said the officer fired a service pistol, hitting Babbitt in the left shoulder, but no further information was released to the family. 

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Cops Knock Innocent Mother’s Teeth Out as She Held Toddler, Beat Her for Filming Them

Filming the police is entirely legal, in every state. However, all too often, we will see police officers overstep their authority and arrest, attack, and assault innocent people for the constitutionally protected act of documenting their behavior in public. As the following case out of Trenton, New Jersey illustrates, police officers will go to extreme and often violent lengths to make sure they are not being filmed, up to and including beating and falsely arresting an innocent mother.

In a recently filed lawsuit, Gloria Noemi Ramirez Caal details the night of her abuse by Trenton’s finest. Caal has the video to back up her claims, as well as the horrific injuries.

According to the lawsuit, Caal was filming her son’s arrest at their home in January 2020 when police attacked her for filming. The innocent mother was holding a 3-year-old when police attacked her for filming, leaving her with injuries to her head, neck, back, right leg and knocking out multiple teeth.

Caal weighs only 100 pounds and is just 4′ 11″ tall yet she was treated like a violent felon for practicing her first amendment right to film.

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Police Chief Demanded to Rape Cop’s Wife, 12yo Daughter in Exchange Promotion—NOT FIRED

 As the Free Thought Project reports on a regular basis, police officers across the country are constantly being caught in the most insidious and horrifying situations. Many of these situations involve sexual misconduct and many of those involve children. In the following instance, however, this situation involves an officer who allegedly wanted to sexually violate both an adult and a child at the same time and he used his position as chief to attempt to get there.

Vineland Police Chief Rudy Beu is in charge of over 150 cops within the department. One of these cops, who has been with the department for more than a decade reported Beu for sexual harassment in 2017. This is not your typical, “sleep with me to get promoted,” harassment, however. This harassment involved the officer’s wife and underage daughter.

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