Tag: wrongful arrest

Man Told by an Officer That He Could Enter the Capitol on Jan. 6 Now Faces 20 Years in Prison

On Jan. 6, 2021, a protestor, 40-year-old Brady Knowlton, says that an officer at the Capitol told “You can go in, as long as you don’t break anything.” At 2:35 p.m., Knowlton did, entering through the Upper West Terrace doors. He looked around inside the building, walked through the Rotunda, lobby, and Senate chamber gallery, obeyed the officer’s injunction not to break anything, and left the building at 2:53 p.m. For that, Knowlton now faces twenty years in prison in Old Joe Biden’s vengeful banana republic.

On top of the possibility of being behind bars until 2042, Knowlton, a law student, has suffered numerous other consequences already. According to the Daily Wire, “his law degree has been withheld, his lawyers say, Airbnb has banned him and his wife, and, for reasons that remain undisclosed, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has stripped his Global Entry access.”

According to the charges filed against him in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Knowlton “did unlawfully and knowingly enter and remain in a restricted building and grounds.” He also “did knowingly, and with intent to impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions, engage in disorderly and disruptive conduct in and within such proximity to, a restricted building and grounds, that is, any posted, cordoned-off, and otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the Vice President and Vice President-elect were temporarily visiting.” He “willfully and knowingly engaged in disorderly and disruptive conduct within the United States Capitol Grounds. He “willfully and knowingly entered and remained in the gallery of either House of Congress, without authorization to do so.”

If Knowlton’s contention that a police officer said he could go in is true, it vitiates all these charges, and Knowlton’s claim is certainly corroborated by photographic and video evidence of cops at the Capitol opening gates, holding the doors open for protestors, and reports that police even posed for selfies with protestors. Also, when the FBI raided Knowlton’s home, they found no evidence whatsoever “concerning the breach and unlawful entry” of the Capitol, or “of any conspiracy, planning, or preparation,” or “maps or diagrams” of the Capitol, or of any “materials, devices, or tools” that Knowlton might have planned to use to get inside.

Keep reading

65 Teens, Arrested, Shackled, Jailed Because Cops Found a Small Bag of Weed Outside of a Party

House parties among teenagers and young adults are a part of growing up. When kids experience freedom from their parents for the first time, they will often make poor choices and this is a part of experiencing life so one can learn. Poor choices that cause harm to others are certainly not acceptable but when young people are experimenting with substances and make choices which have no victims, they should never have to worry about their lives being ruined over it. Unfortunately, for 65 young people in Cartersville, Georgia, they had no say in the matter when cops arrested all of them — despite none of them making any poor choices.

The nightmare for these 65 teenagers and young folks started back in 2017 as they gathered at a home to celebrate the New Year. As is common on New Year’s Eve, firecrackers can be heard going off all around town. Thought none of the teens involved in this party were popping fireworks, police used it as a reason to enter the home, without a warrant, claiming they heard gun shots.

When police came to the door that night, they had no evidence of a crime being committed, nor did they have reasonable suspicion. Nevertheless, they barged into the legally rented Airbnb, paid for by 21-year-old Deja Heard, who was celebrating her 21st birthday that night.

Officers had no warrant as the shut down the entire party and searched everyone. The only evidence of a crime — which is not a crime at all — was claimed when police found a small bag of weed in the front yard.

Because no one wanted to go to jail over a plant, no one fessed up, or perhaps the person who dropped it, left the party. Regardless, the solution proposed by the officers that night was to arrest everyone and charge them all with possession of marijuana. And they did exactly that.

These teens and young adults were then hauled off to jail, booked into the Bartow County lockup and shackled — for a small bag of weed found outside on the ground.

Keep reading

Police Cross Paths With Innocent Mentally Ill Man, Kill His Dog, Put Him in ICU

 A disturbing video illustrating the problem with police in America and their inability to deal with the mentally ill, surfaced over the weekend. What it shows is that when your only tool is a hammer, people in a mental health crisis and even their dog will be pounded like nails. George Barlow, 32, and his dog, learned this the hard way over the weekend when their paths crossed with Inyo County Sheriff’s deputies.

According to police, “on July 24 shortly after 2:00am Inyo County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a domestic violence restraining order violation at 969 Tu Su Lane. Upon arrival of the deputies, neither the reporting party nor the suspect could be located. While looking in the area, the deputies noticed a male subject across the street at the Chevron station, which was closed; the subject was agitated and yelling.”

The man yelling was Barlow. He was alone, was not the person police were looking for, breaking no laws, and had harmed no one. Despite these facts, police decided to initiate a confrontation with him which proved to be deadly for his dog and put Barlow in ICU.

Police claim that when they approached Barlow, he “charged the deputy with his pit bull closely behind him.” This is not seen on the video posted to social media. The video shows a shirtless Barlow with his hands up, clearly frightened of what is going on and just trying to get away. According to the police statement:

The deputy continually ordered Barlow to stop charging. When Barlow came within 10 feet, the deputy deployed his Taser. Due to the heavy clothing Barlow was wearing, the Taser had no effect on Barlow. Barlow removed his heavy sweater.

The second deputy responded to the Chevron at this point and after Barlow refused to follow commands, he deployed his Taser striking Barlow in the upper abdomen. This caused Barlow to fall to the ground. Before the deputies were able to handcuff him, Barlow sat up and removed the Taser darts.

After tasering the man who was doing nothing but standing in an empty parking lot, police then pulled out their batons and started wailing on him. Naturally, this caused Barlow to attempt to protect himself from the officers, and his dog as well. As Barlow grabbed the police baton to stop it from smashing in his skull, one of the officers can be heard on the video saying, “shoot the dog.”

Moments later, an officer shot Barlow’s dog causing Barlow to jump up and run away. When police caught up with Barlow in the parking lot next door, they released their dog this time, which was not nearly as nice as Barlow’s pit bull.

In the second video, Barlow is seen on the ground as the dog can be heard snarling and tearing into his flesh. The attack was so over the top that the people filming began yelling at the officers to get their dog off of him. The deputies didn’t listen.

Barlow’s injuries were so severe that according to his family, he is currently on life support. They have since launched a GoFundMe for Barlow, who they say is a victim of racial bias in policing as he was a Native American..

Keep reading

Assange Prosecution Relied On False Testimony From A Diagnosed Sociopath And Convicted Pedophile

The Icelandic newspaper Stundin reports that a key witness in the US prosecution of Julian Assange has admitted in an interview with the outlet that he fabricated critical accusations in the indictment against the WikiLeaks founder.

“A major witness in the United States’ Department of Justice case against Julian Assange has admitted to fabricating key accusations in the indictment against the Wikileaks founder,” Stundin reports. “The witness, who has a documented history with sociopathy and has received several convictions for sexual abuse of minors and wide-ranging financial fraud, made the admission in a newly published interview in Stundin where he also confessed to having continued his crime spree whilst working with the Department of Justice and FBI and receiving a promise of immunity from prosecution.”

BREAKING: Lead witness in US case against Julian Assange admits to fabricating evidence against him in exchange for a deal with the FBI #Assange https://t.co/kZxsTi62q0

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 26, 2021

This major witness would be Iceland’s Sigurdur “Sigi” Thordarson, a paid FBI informant who after his short-lived association with WikiLeaks has been found guilty of sexually abusing nine boys as well as embezzlement, fraud, and theft in his home country. A court-appointed psychologist has found him to be a sociopath.

“The court found that Sigurður is by all definitions a sociopath, suffering from a severe anti-social personality disorder. However, the court found that he did know the difference between right and wrong and could not be considered insane and could therefore stand trial,” Iceland Magazine reported in 2015 during Thordarson’s child abuse case.

This was all public knowledge when the US government was building its case to extradite Julian Assange to America and try him under the Patriot Act for journalistic activity which exposed US war crimes, a prosecution for which Assange is still locked up in Belmarsh Prison pending Washington’s appeal of a UK court’s denial of the extradition request. And now we know for a fact that the odious person whose testimony formed the basis for much of that prosecution was lying.

“US officials presented an updated version of an indictment against him to a Magistrate court in London last summer,” Stundin says. “The veracity of the information contained therein is now directly contradicted by the main witness, whose testimony it is based on.”

What this means is that the US decided to add more accusations to its previous indictment because charging a journalist for standard journalistic practices was too weak on its own, and now this decision has bitten them in the ass.

Keep reading

TEXAS DEPLOYED SWAT, BOMB ROBOT, SMALL ARMY OF COPS TO ARREST A WOMAN AND HER DOG

TWENTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD LAUREN MESTAS was already having a bad day when she noticed a cop car tailing her northbound on Interstate 35, headed into downtown Austin. She wasn’t overly concerned at first, as she wasn’t breaking any laws, but the patrol vehicle remained on her tail as she exited onto Riverside Drive, headed west. She started to suspect that it might have something to do with the slogans soaped all over the windows of her 2001 Toyota 4Runner. In addition to “BROWN PRIDE” and “BLACK LIVES MATTER,” written across the rear window were the words “FUCK THESE RACIST POLICE.”

Keep reading