Tag: police state

Kentucky prison system in chaos after more than THIRTY workers are caught having sex with inmates behind bars, anally raping others and smuggling them drugs including meth for cash

More than 30 workers with the Kentucky Department of Corrections were caught having sex with inmates behind bars during a 16-month period, while others were found smuggling drugs and guns.

A shocking investigation by Herald-Leader revealed 59 cases of employee-on-inmate sexual offenses in the past five years, with 35 cases involving possible criminal charges.

Most recently, 42-year-old Amanda Kulka was charged with third-degree sodomy earlier this month for allegedly having a sexual relationship with an inmate half her age. 

The inmate, who has not been identified, was serving a lengthy sentence for burglary, assault and theft, according to the outlet.  

Meanwhile, at least 14 others were caught smuggling drugs like suboxone and meth into prisons in exchange for money. One officer faced charges for carrying a handgun.

A total of 62 employees were either fired or resigned across 13 state prisons and a minimum-security prison camp, which together house more than 11,300 inmates.  

Experts say that troubles in Kentucky state prisons extend beyond inappropriate relationships or smuggling, and the same holds true for correctional facilities across the country.  

‘Being a correctional officer is a very challenging job,’ said Judah Schept, an associate professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. 

‘In the popular imagination, we think of these jobs as being exposed to extreme forms of violence, and of course, that can happen,’ he said. 

‘But more often, I think what you’re dealing with are mundane daily tasks and being unappreciated and underpaid and feeling isolated and overworked. Given where you’re working, this can lead to some problems,’ Schept said.

DailyMail.com was able to identify and picture at least eight corrections officers who were charged with rape, sodomy, or sexual assault in recent years. 

In a federal lawsuit filed last year, Todd Steven Boyce, 56, was accused of sexually abusing an inmate in multiple ways between March and July 2022. Allegedly, prison officials were aware of his behaviors but made no effort to stop him. 

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South Dakota Senate Passes Strict Ban On Delta-8 THC And Other Intoxicating Hemp Products

The state Senate has voted to pass the original, stricter version of a ban on the widely available, hemp-derived “diet weed” products that induce highs similar to marijuana.

House Bill 1125 had originally targeted a wide swath of products. The gummies, vape pens, pre-rolled joints and smokable flowers can be produced using high concentrations of the psychoactive chemicals present in minuscule amounts in industrial hemp, or using synthetically derived versions of those same chemicals.

The chemical concoctions are an unexpected outgrowth of the legalization of industrial hemp at the federal level. The federal legality of the natural intoxicants made the use of them in large concentrations legal by extension, though there have been questions raised by the Drug Enforcement Administration about the legality of the lab-grown versions.

HB 1125 flip-flopped between which kinds of products would be covered as it moved through the lawmaking process.

Rep. Brian Mulder, R-Sioux Falls, moved his bill through the House Health and Human Services Committee in its original form, but saw it modified on the House floor to target only products made from the lab-grown chemicals, which are sold under names like THC-O.

Rep. Oren Lesmeister, D-Parade, told his fellow representatives that a ban on products made with naturally occurring chemicals would hurt small business owners and hemp growers alike. Under that change, products sold under names like Delta-8 or Delta-10 THC would still be legal to sell.

The House passed Lesmeister’s amendment, then passed HB 1125 on a unanimous vote.

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Why Did Cops Point a Gun at a Burning Gaza Protester?

Active-duty U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. While Bushnell lay dying on the ground, engulfed by flames, officers from the U.S. Secret Service aggressively tried to give him orders and pointed a weapon at him.

“I don’t need guns,” another agent shouted in frustration. “I need fire extinguishers.”

Bushnell’s act, which eventually killed him, was meant to protest U.S. support for Israel’s war effort in Gaza. (The Air Force is currently transporting weapons and providing satellite intelligence for the Israeli military.) Bushnell, a military I.T. engineer, declared that he would “no longer be complicit in genocide” and shouted “Free Palestine.” 

But video of the event also showcased the disorderly, confused, and aggressive law enforcement response. Bushnell livestreamed his self-immolation on Twitch. The livestreaming platform quickly removed the video, but independent journalist Talia Jane obtained and shared a censored copy of the video online a few hours later.

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Feds Target Journalist Tim Burke With Law Intended for Hackers

People engaged in journalism frequently acquire information others wish would never see the light of day. This often means gathering tips in violation of workplace rules or through other people’s carelessness. That can result in legal battles and, in the age of technology and cybercrime, in governments coming after the curious with tools crafted for malicious hackers. All this appears to be the case with Tim Burke, who has been targeted with a controversial law by the feds after gathering information through electronic means.

“Federal prosecutors in Florida have obtained a disturbing indictment against well-known journalist Tim Burke,” the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) warned last week. “The indictment could have significant implications for press freedom, not only by putting digital journalists at risk of prosecution but by allowing the government to permanently seize a journalist’s computers.”

Specifically, in the February 15 indictment, federal prosecutors say that Burke “intentionally intercepted, endeavored to intercept, and procured another person to intercept and to endeavor to intercept, the contents of a wire, oral, and electronic communication as it was occurring, by means of a device, namely a computer.”

Burke’s home was raided last year after he distributed intercepted video, including outtakes of the rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) making antisemitic comments during an interview with Tucker Carlson while the host was still with Fox News. Burke has built a reputation with his very online presence and distinctive style. He has also rubbed some people the wrong way with his reporting and, perhaps, the means by which he acquires material. But the prosecutors going after Burke are also accused of resorting to questionable tactics, including invoking the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, an anti-hacking law.

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Georgia Deputy Canned After Arrest for Rape, Child Molestation, Police Say

A deputy in DeKalb County, Georgia, was fired after he was arrested Sunday on a slew of sex-crime charges, including child molestation, authorities said.

Derrick Gardner, 34, was arrested Sunday by the DeKalb County Police Department and was charged with trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, rape, child molestation, first-degree cruelty to children, enticing a child for indecent purposes, and aggravated sexual battery, authorities said.

DeKalb police spokesperson Michaela Vincent told The Daily Beast Monday that officers responded to a 911 call and a report about a rape on Sunday and arrested Gardner following their investigation.

Gardner was subsequently fired from his post at the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office.

“Gardner’s employment has been terminated,” DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox said in an emailed statement, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Monday.

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Chris Wray’s FBI Forced a Young Mother to Stand Outside Barefoot with Her 4-Yr-Old Boy in His Pajamas in 12° Weather While They Ransacked Her Home – She Lost Her Baby the Next Day

Chris Kuehne was sentenced on Friday for his actions on January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol.

Chris is a 22-year veteran who received numerous medals and awards, including the Purple Heart, a Navy Commendation Medal with Valor, and a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Valor for actions in combat.

Chris has personally sacrificed his blood, sweat, and tears serving our country and has paid the price for his duty and continues to live with debilitating and invisible injuries. Even before this Chris has protected people and helped people in need. As a 9-year-old Cub Scout he was awarded the Boy Scouts of America’s highest honor, the Medal of Merit, for saving his young sister from a burning car.

On January 6, 2021, Chris went inside the Capitol but did not cause any harm or damage – in fact, he cleaned trash off the floor, helped to stop theft of government property, asked people to leave the building, and went up to Capitol Police Officers to ask how he could help. Chris was also set up by an FBI operative that day. Chris committed no violence and did nothing wrong.

One month later, in the early morning of February 11, 2021 Chris, his four-year-old child, and his wife Annette, who was pregnant at the time were awakened to sirens, cell phone rings, and bursts of colorful lights reflecting through our windows.

Annette later went public about the raid, “The FBI instructed Chris to come outside immediately. Our 4-year-old was awakened from the chaos, and I picked him up and ran downstairs to open the front door. Our house, street and neighboring streets were completely surrounded by armed FBI and law enforcement. It was a scene that we see so many times in the movies, but now it was here at my house! There were three large armored tactical vehicles parked on my front, side and back yard, and police vehicles that extended throughout the entire community. I open the door, and for a second, I didn’t realize that there were about twenty FBI SWAT Team members with semi-automatic rifles pointed at my son and I. We were covered by the bright red lasers pointed at our faces, chests, and various points on our bodies.”

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Fatal crash in police chase doesn’t count, Kansas says — because it was on purpose

When a Bonner Springs police officer began chasing a man in June 2021 for an expired license plate, speeds on Interstate 70 escalated to 100 mph.

Then the officer intentionally hit the car to bring the chase to an end, a maneuver called a tactical vehicle intervention or TVI.

The driver, Darrell Vincent, of Kansas City, Kansas, was ejected and killed.

In an odd loophole, Vincent’s death is not counted in statewide or federal statistics on police chases because the officer purposely struck his car.

That officials choose not to include injuries or deaths caused by deliberate actions by police is one example of how police chases are not reliably counted by state or federal authorities.

“I think that’s wrong because it was a chase,” said Darrius Vincent, Darrell Vincent’s son. “It cost him his life and I just don’t think that was a good thing. It was a very bad thing.”

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FCC To Force Broadcasters To Publish Race And Sex ‘Scorecards’ Of Employees

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3 to 2 this month to require U.S. broadcasters to record and publicly disclose the race, ethnicity, and sex of their employees.

The now-pending regulation was first introduced after Congress’ 1992 Cable Act. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck it down in 2001 as unconstitutionally enabling the hiring of Americans for their skin color. The policy remained suspended until President Joe Biden’s FCC nominee received Senate confirmation in 2023 and flipped control of the commission to Democrats.

The FCC argued reinstating the race policy is “critical” because “it will allow for
analysis and understanding of the broadcast industry workforce” and is “consistent with Congress’s goal to maximize the utility of the data an agency collects for the benefit of the public.” The commission claimed it could not generalize or aggregate racial and sexual data because it would be “less useful.”

“We find no basis to conclude that the demographic data on a station’s annual Form 395-B filing would lead to undue public pressure,” the commission claimed.

FCC member Brendan Carr, however, said the rule moving into place is not consistent with the Consitution nor employment confidentiality requirements in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“The FCC’s ostrich-like claim that the record is devoid of any evidence that this public scorecard will be used to pressure broadcasters into making race- and gender-based hiring decisions does not withstand even casual scrutiny; indeed, it only raises additional questions under the law,” Carr wrote.

In his dissenting statement, Carr dubbed the proposed rule a product of activists who want “to see businesses pressured into hiring people based on their race & gender.”

“This is no benign disclosure regime. The record makes clear that the FCC is choosing to publish these scorecard[s] for one and only one reason: to ensure that individual businesses are
targeted and pressured into making decisions based on race and gender,” Carr wrote.

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Use Of Force Expert Says Capitol Police ‘Set One Man On Fire’ With Concussion Grenades On January 6

Veteran use of force expert Steven Hill, a former SWAT team supervisor with the Albuquerque Police Department, warns police waged a “terror attack” against the crowd of peaceful demonstrators during the J6 Stop the Steal rally when they launched a concussion grenade that set at least one man on fire.

Hill, an investigator with J6Truth, has examined over 1000 hours of J6 footage over the past two years and taken the stand in three J6 trials as an expert witness while assisting defense attorneys including those representing the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys with gathering exculpatory evidence.

J6 Truth’s team of investigators, including Hill and this reporter, have identified at least a dozen of instances of police flagrantly breaking the law during the January 6 protests.

In footage captured from a demonstrator’s camera on the West Plaza of the US Capitol at 1:24 pm, cops are seen firing a “sting ball grenade” into a peaceful crowd that set at least one man on fire, an illegal aberration of standard operating procedures and violation of all District of Columbia ordinances.

“You see a sting ball grenade that has been hand-thrown by officers into a crowd of peaceful oblivious demonstrators who are at least 30 to 50 feet behind the frontline of demonstrators,” Hill highlights in a 2-minute video of the explosion.

“As you watch where the grenade lands, you see that this group of people — some of them are praying, talking with others, shooting cell phone video facing away from the officers and unaware as to what the Capitol officers are doing,” he continues. “The riot control weapon is a rubber ball grenade that uses a small charge that will split the ball in half and eject tear gases, rubber balls or both.”

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The Irish Should Reject The New ‘Hate Speech’ Bill

The Republic of Ireland could soon become one of the worst violators of the human right to free speech in the Western world. Despite the government claiming to espouse liberal ideas, the looming Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill would usher in a dangerous new standard for state-driven censorship. The expression or possession of content or even ideas deemed “hateful” would be illegal under the law, with serious implications for everyday people simply seeking to live according to their convictions.  

The Irish need only look to the case of Finnish member of parliament Päivi Räsänen — criminally prosecuted for over four years for a Bible-verse tweet, to recognise the suffocating impact “hate speech” laws engender. Finnish state prosecutors are pushing her case into its fifth year with an appeal to the country’s supreme court, making no attempt to hide their insatiable quest to silence and sanction the parliamentarian for her peaceful expression of Christian conviction. 

Räsänen’s “crime” consisted of sharing her Christian position on marriage and sexuality in a 2019 Twitter post. When her church decided to officially sponsor a Helsinki “Pride” event, she expressed an objection in light of Biblical teaching, posting a verse from the New Testament book of Romans. Lengthy police interrogations followed by criminal prosecution ensued, absurdly under the section of the Finnish criminal code titled “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.  

Räsänen was dealt three criminal charges, carrying a potential prison sentence of two years, for the tweet, in addition to her comments on a 2019 radio debate and in a church pamphlet she had authored nearly 20 years before. Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola was charged alongside her for publishing the booklet for his congregation. 

Räsänen and Pohjola were twice unanimously acquitted of all charges, but with the pending supreme court appeal, it’s clear that free speech in Finland hangs very much in the balance. The prosecution of individuals in the public eye has a particularly repressive effect — few and far between will be the brave person willing to speak their mind when the state, utilising near limitless resources, makes clear its tireless pursuit of censorship.  

Such is the reality increasingly facing us in the West who dare to voice our beliefs in the public square. While “hate speech” laws are pervasive throughout Europe, with the proposed new law, Ireland is setting a new low bar for censorship. Notably, the draft bill goes so far as to include a sentence of up to five years in prison for the mere possession of “hateful” material.  

Not content with its existing array of free speech restrictions, the government has based the necessity of the new law on the need to counter rising violence in Ireland, following a surge of incidents largely tied to tensions over immigration. The argument is that restricting speech somehow increases safety on the streets—but history has shown no proof of this. What it has shown is that censorship is the preferred answer to any problem the state faces. It’s easier for those in power to silence dissent, than to deal with the problems plaguing their societies.  

The thought of Irish police raiding homes to seize materials, including books and even something as ridiculous as memes on phones, recalls some of the darker episodes of the past century.

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