Time for another weekly Police Misconduct NewsWatch where we take a look at a few of the 93 incidents our National Police Misconduct NewsFeed has captured this week.

Canadian SciFi Author Beaten By Border Patrol

First, one story that’s burning up the blogosphere but hasn’t yet been reported in the MSM comes via BoingBoing. Canadian science fiction author Dr. Peter Watts is claiming that he was beaten, arrested, and thrown in a holding cell wet and half-naked at the US/Canadian border in Michigan for simply asking US Border Patrol agents what was going on.

For those who don’t know, the US Border Patrol is an agency that has grown rapidly but does not have any oversight mechanism whatsoever, unlike even the larger urban law enforcement agencies that at least have an appearance of one. This combination of lax hiring practices due to staffing pressure and the lack of even a fundamental oversight mechanism has been leading to problems for a while now, something I’ve talked about before back on the old site.

Still Looking For That “Higher Standard”?

For those of you who appreciate how law enforcement officers are held to a higher standard, there were a lot of special plea deals for cops this week that demonstrated that…

• In Huntington Indiana a police officer got a deal that gives him a year in prison for molesting a 15 year old girl on multiple occations.
• An Albuquerque New Mexico gang cop got probation in a deal for pleading to stealing drugs and cash in a bust that cost prosecutors a case.
• A 51yr old Clifton Forge Virginia police officer was given a suspended sentence for sexually battering an 18yr old family friend.
• A Baltimore Maryland police officer was given a suspended sentence deal for pleading to a reduced non-sexually related charge for molesting a 13yr old relative. Asked by judge to pretty-please stay away from kids.
• An FBI agent in West Virginia was given a suspended sentence after found guilty of using survielance cameras to watch young girls undress in mall changing rooms. His fellow agent was also given a similar non-sentence last month.
• The former Oakwood Texas Police Chief is also set to get a sweetheart deal for pleading guilty to repeatedly tasering his girlfriend in the face. Probation, community service, and anger management classes will clear is record even though he was originally charged with felony aggravated assault w/deadly weapon. The victim is pleading with the judge to deny the deal.

…Or That Big Old Blue Wall?

Of course, the only thing more frustrating than that is what happens when departments go over the top to protect their own…

• A Lorain Ohio police officer who was finally fired last year after an extensive background of sexual misconduct got rape charges dismissed against him because his department took too long to investigate rape allegations made against him.
• In Springfield Illinois, the city has spent nearly $340,000 to defend two officers they had already fired in a civil rights suit for planting drugs and false arrest. Now the city will have to authorize even more for a second trial now that the first has ended in a mistrial… That city already faces a severe deficit and attorneys for the victims say they would have settled but the city keeps refusing to talk.
• In Cannon County Tennessee, a deputy there has resigned after his girlfriend filed a protection order against him for threatening her with a gun when she tried to end their relationship, claiming he said “if I can’t have you, nobody will”. Now she claims the department tried to cover it up and another deputy agrees and is claiming that he was fired right after that incident for “not defending his brother in arms” when he didn’t join in when several other deputies tried to discourage the woman from filing a complaint.
• Detroit Michigan is now under a federal investigation for $700k used to secretly paying off two people who claimed the infamous “Booty Boys” police officers, who are accused of fondling several men during illegal searches, had groped them. The problem? Whoever authorized the secret payouts may have violated the law by bypassing the city council in that effort to keep it secret, and thus keep those cases from being part of a larger suit against the officers filed by almost 20 other men. The city won that case, btw…

Hired To Protect Your Kids… But Who Protects Your Kids From Them?

In Texas, some people may think that the police officers assigned to protect your kids in school are specially screened for the task? They should think again… Thanks to police unions, a former Dallas TX police officer who was forced to be rehired twice before fired a third time was then hired by the Lancaster Independent School District as a school police officer (they’re sworn officers too apparently) where he was also forced to be rehired after fired once already and now has been arrested for assaulting a student for eating the wrong lunch… he’s on paid leave this time, by the way.

Of course, it’s not like I haven’t talked about the problem of putting aggressive cops in school hallways before…

That’s it for this time… stay safe out there!