Tag: police state

‘Shock and Awe’: Feds Admit They are Prosecuting Jan. 6 Capitol Protesters to Create Chilling Effect on 1st Amendment

Federal prosecutor Michael Sherwin appeared on CBS News’ 60 Minutes on Sunday where he admitted that he charged as many people as quickly as possible regardless of the evidence to put a chilling effect on the 1st Amendment rights of Trump supporters.

“After the 6th, we had an inauguration on the 20th. So I wanted to ensure, and our office wanted to ensure that there was shock and awe that we could charge as many people as possible before the 20th,” Sherwin told CBS News. 

He added: “And it worked because we saw through media posts that people were afraid to come back to D.C. because they’re like, “If we go there, we’re gonna get charged.”’

Sherwin made it clear that the feds went after people who had gone viral regardless of whether they perpetrated any violence or committed any actual crime.

“So the first people we went after, I’m gonna call the internet stars, right? The low-hanging fruit. The ‘zip-tie guy,’ the ‘rebel flag guy,’ the ‘Camp Auschwitz guy.’ We wanted to take out those individuals that essentially were thumbing their noses at the public for what they did,” Sherwin said.

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A Single Buffalo Cop Has Shot 26 Dogs in Only 3 Years — A Dog Every 6 Weeks

Frequent readers of TFTP know too well how many beloved family pets are gunned down every year by public servants in the U.S. It happens so much that there is a term for it called “puppycide.” We have an endless archive of stories in which dogs meet their untimely ends at the end of a cop’s gun.

According to an unofficial count done by an independent research group, Ozymandias Media, a dog is shot by law enforcement every 98 minutes. That number could be higher too as many of the cases never make the media reports.

One cop in Buffalo has apparently made it his mission to make sure that rate stays as high as possible — that cop is Detective Joseph M. Cook.

Cook was the subject of a recently settled lawsuit against the Buffalo police department after they raided the home of Adam Arroyo back in 2013. According to the lawsuit, police were looking for alleged drug activity that day. When they raided the home, however, they found no such drugs but they did find Arroyo’s dog, Cindy.

The lawsuit states that Cindy was leashed up in the kitchen while Arroyo was at work when the raid took place. Arroyo explained that she had been getting bored when he was out and tore up some furniture, so he put her on a leash that day.

During the entirely fruitless and pointless raid, detective Cook found Cindy in the kitchen and shot her three times at point blank range, killing her. Cook maintains that the dog was off the leash when he confronted her but the settlement and Cook’s history tell a completely different story.

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6yo Boy Arrested, Forced to Go to Court for Picking a Flower at His Bus Stop

“Should a child that believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy be making life-altering decisions?” asked New Hanover County Chief District Court Judge Jay Corpening. This is a question which has come up repeatedly in the state of North Carolina as dozens of children as young a six are being processed into the criminal justice system. The latest case involves a 6-year-old boy who was arrested and forced to go to court because he picked a flower while waiting for the bus.

Attorney Julie Boyer’s child client was on trial for injury to real property after he stopped to pick a flower from a yard near his bus stop, according to The Herald-Sun. Illustrating the ridiculous nature of sending a child to court for picking a flower is the fact that he had no idea what was going on.

Boyer said she had to give the boy some crayons and a coloring book during the proceedings because he did not have the mental capacity to understand what was happening to him.

“I asked him to color a picture,” she said, “so he did.”

This is a serious problem and speaks to the archaic nature of the law in the state of North Carolina. Currently, the state’s juvenile system has the lowest minimum age in the world to enter the court system — which is six.

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Children Fined $436, Required to Work it Off at $10/Hour for Missing Online Classes

A new report out of the Guardian exposes an insidious scheme by police and school officials to fine students who miss too many online classes. Tracy Higgins was one of these parents who was shocked when police showed up at her home to issue her teenage son a $439 fine for missing zoom meetings for class.

Higgins told the Guardian the reason for the online absences was due to faulty school technology, including a Chromebook that wouldn’t charge. But police and the school district reportedly did not care, so Higgins’s son was extorted.

Debra Pratt, another mother from the same district was also confronted by armed agents of the state who showed up at her home to extort her son for the same reason. Her son Jason racked up 28 unexcused absences online, including while he was battling the coronavirus.

“I think it’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, especially during a pandemic when there’s just too many other factors that are playing into this,” Pratt told the Guardian.

Pratt told the Guardian her son struggled to learn remotely which is a situation millions of children found themselves in during the pandemic. Sadly, millions of children are still not in school and these situations continue to play out.

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Police Chief Allowed to Resign, Gets $72,000 in Benefits After Arrest for Sexual Assault

 In January, Marshfield Police Chief Rick Gramza was arrested and charged with three counts of misconduct in office, disorderly conduct, and fourth-degree sexual assault against a department employee. However, instead of facing a jury of his peers for these accusations, Gramza will be receiving tens of thousands of dollars and months of paid vacation.

According to reports, chief Gramza is accused of sexually assaulting a department employee on several occasions, as early as 2014 and as late as this past summer.

WSAW reports the Eau Claire detective sergeant investigating the case shared some specific instances the employee told him, including one in 2015, where she says she went into his office to talk about a promotion and then he sexually assaulted her.

“And made a statement similar to ‘this isn’t ever going to help you get a job,’ recalled Detective Sergeant Adam Taylor, from the Eau Claire Police Department.

The employee told Detective Sergeant Taylor she feared retaliation and when she reported concerns to human resources in 2015, that “it did not go well.”

After the accusations, originally surfaced, Gramza was placed on paid administrative leave in mid-August, but has continued to receive his salary and benefit package from the city, totaling just over $146,000. Now, he’ll be getting over $70,000 more, approaching nearly a quarter of a million dollars for roughly half a year — in which he never worked a single day.

Only a government employee could enjoy such benefits. Nowhere in the private sector would an alleged sexual predator be given a paid vacation for six months and allowed to retire with their full benefits.

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