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High Ranking Police Folk Allegedly Behaving Badly

I got curious and did some googling: judges in Colorado are initially appointed, but then every two years on even numbered years they have to run in a 'retention' election. So the voters could turf him if this gets enough traction. As far as I can tell, that vote is part of the general election ballot in November.
Good tip -- if I'm reading his 2022 results right ....
... he got a 74% yes and 26% no vote, but the numbers don't add up for me, so who knows.

It's also interesting that they seem to get a periodic assessment/report card - here's the judge's 2022 posting ....
... done by (in his case) the Eighth Judicial District Commission on Judicial Performance - made up of what look like mostly political appointees ....
1725290293559.png
More on the process here ....
1725290387010.png
The piece I don't have is what the state law actually requires, versus what it allows up to the judge's discretion. The whole thing is still atrocious, I'm just not sure how much is a judicial problem and how much is legislative.
 
Seems like Aurora PD has a pretty big culture problem. Even before looking it up I recall them coming up a few times in the news over the past decade, to the point where they stand out amongst thousands of local PDs. You'd think the locals would get sick of their tax dollars paying for all those settlements.


Misconduct

On 2 March 2015, An Aurora officer shot and killed Naeschylus Carter-Vinzant while trying to serve a warrant. He was unarmed. The matter was settled with a payment of over two and a half million dollars.[8]

New reports indicate that on 29 June 2015, police arrested a pickpocket named Jeffery Gale. Seven Aurora officer handcuffed and hog-tied him. They then repeatedly attacked him with a Taser.[8]

On 14 November 2015, Aurora police officers illegally arrested Dwight Crews after ordering him from his house. They had no warrant for his arrest. The matter was settled with a payment of $35,000.[8]

On 22 December 2015, OyZhana Williams drove a man to the emergency room for treatment of a gunshot wound. There, several Aurora officers attacked her, slamming her head the ground and stomping on her. The matter was settled with a payment of $335,000.[8]

On 19 February 2016, Aurora police officers detained Darsean Kelly as he was near the scene of a crime. Although he did not resist the police, they attacked him with a Taser. The matter was settled out of court for $110,000.[8]

On 16 March 2016, Aurora officers entered a coffee shop and approached Omar Hassan who was eating a muffin. With their hands on their guns they ordered out of the store telling him, "Your kind of business is not welcome here." The matter was settled for $40,000.[8]

On 2 June 2016, in a case of mistaken identity, police entered a home without a warrant and handcuffed two men. The matter was settled with a payment of $150,000.[8]

On 18 June 2017, Lt. Charles DeShazer was recorded using the racial slur "Alabama porch monkeys" to refer to black people. DeShazer was fired for his comments, but subsequently reinstated.[9][10]

In March 2019, Officer Nate Meier was found in his uniform and official police vehicle asleep. A blood test showed five times the legal limit of alcohol. Aurora officers responding to the situation turned off their body cameras, failed to test a clear liquid found in a bottle in the car and did not collect evidence that could have been used in a criminal prosecution. After being demoted, Officer Meier remained on the job.[11]

On 24 August 2019, responding to a call of a "suspicious person", the Aurora Police Department arrested Elijah McClain while he was walking home with groceries. McClain subsequently died as a result of police action during the arrest.[12]

On 27 August 2019, Officer Levi Huffine hog-tied a black woman with her hands and ankles behind her back and ignored her cries for help for 20 minutes after she fell off the back seat of his cruiser in an inverted position, body camera imagery showed.[13] Interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson fired Huffine. Huffine appealed his firing, but the firing was upheld, at which point Huffine sued the Department in an attempt to get his job back.[14]

In February 2020, an Aurora officer was fired for misconduct during an incident the preceding August. The interim police chief Vanessa Wilson announced the action to the press but refused to elaborate on what the officer might have done.[15]

On 10 August 2020, Officer Robert Rosen responded to a King Soopers supermarket to assist another officer in arresting a man who was allegedly trespassing. When Rosen arrived on scene, he began to punch the suspect multiple times in the ribs and deployed his taser more than five times. The suspect was "passively resisting", laying on the floor covering his arms before Rosen arrived on scene.[16][17] On 11 February 2021, police chief Vanessa Wilson fired Rosen for excessive use of force, unsatisfactory performance, misuse of a taser, and failure to operate a body-worn camera.[18]

In July 2021, Officer John Haubert detained an unarmed man, pistol-whipped him at least seven times, and choked him for 39 seconds. Haubert also held his gun point blank against the man's head, later stating he would have shot him but wasn't sure if his gun was loaded. A second officer was standing nearby and did not intervene. Haubert was charged with felony second-degree assault, felony menacing, and two misdemeanors. The second officer was charged for not intervening against the use of force.[19][20]

Press report in early February 2022 indicated that Doug Wilkinson, the head of the local police union was fired. This was the result of an investigation into an email sent to his members that pointed out that “to match the ‘diversity’ of ‘the community’ we could make sure to hire 10% illegal aliens, 50% weed smokers, 10% crackheads, and a few child molesters and murderers to round it out. You know, so we can make the department look like the ‘community.'”[21]
 
They must have some pretty interesting recruiting videos.
 
Whoah. Can’t wait to see details come out on this one. At first glance it looks like stuff well after his service, but we’ll see in time.
Ask and ye shall receive. Sam Cooper over at the Bureau has this piece about Majcher and his alleged connections to Chinese Triads.

 
Ask and ye shall receive. Sam Cooper over at the Bureau has this piece about Majcher and his alleged connections to Chinese Triads.

Well, isn’t that a cosy little gathering.

Drug dealers. Hi ranking CCP members. And a former RCMP Officer.

Interesting Venn diagram….
 
I’d need to see an unsealed affidavit to be able to meaningfully opine on this… Wiretaps are hard to get. They also have to name anyone whose communications they expect to intercept, even those who aren’t targets but are captured incidentally. I could see that happening in the context of extended families where multiple members might be targeted and so damn near everyone gets named.

Sounds like this is now pretty dated. An original and three renewals would grant up to eight months of intercepts, and it doesn’t sound like charges have been laid. Also clearly a further extension on delayed notification was either not sought or not granted. So it’s a bit of a “what’s up?”
 
NYPD corruption scandal? I'm shocked ;)


NYC police commissioner resigns amid nightclub probe​

Edward Caban's phone was seized by federal investigators last week.


New York Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned Thursday amid a federal investigation into the department's nightclub enforcement, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Caban, the city’s first Latino police commissioner, took over the department in July 2023 after being tapped by Mayor Eric Adams, whose administration is the target of multiple federal investigations.

“The news around recent developments has created a distraction for our department, and I am unwilling to let my attention be on anything other than our important work, or the safety of the men and women of the NYPD,” Caban said in an email to members of the NYPD, which was obtained by NBC News.

"I hold immense respect and gratitude for the brave officers who serve this department, and the NYPD deserves someone who can solely focus on protecting and serving New York City, which is why — for the good of this city and this department — I have made the difficult decision to resign as police commissioner," the email added.

Adams, speaking in an address later Thursday, announced that he was appointing Thomas Donlon as the interim police commissioner. Donlon is a national security expert who previously ran the FBI’s National Threat Center and the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force. He was also the New York state director of the Office of Homeland Security.

Caban's phone was seized last week around the same time that FBI agents raided the homes of top Adams administration officials as part of a separate probe. Those whose homes were searched included First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III.

Caban's twin brother, James Caban, who owns a nightclub security business, also had his phone seized in the corruption investigation involving the NYPD.

Federal investigators want to know if James Caban profited from his ties to his powerful brother and the NYPD, according to multiple sources. Specifically, the investigation is looking into whether James Caban was paid by bars and clubs in Midtown Manhattan and Queens to act as a police liaison, and if those clubs were then afforded special treatment by local precincts, the sources said.

Lawyers for Edward Caban described him in a statement as an "accomplished public servant who has dedicated his life to the safety and security of the people of this great city."

"We have been informed by the government that he is not a target of any investigation being conducted by the Southern District of New York, and he expects to cooperate fully with the government," said the lawyers, Russell Capone and Rebekah Donaleski.

 
NYPD corruption scandal? I'm shocked ;)


NYC police commissioner resigns amid nightclub probe​

Edward Caban's phone was seized by federal investigators last week.


New York Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned Thursday amid a federal investigation into the department's nightclub enforcement, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Caban, the city’s first Latino police commissioner, took over the department in July 2023 after being tapped by Mayor Eric Adams, whose administration is the target of multiple federal investigations.

“The news around recent developments has created a distraction for our department, and I am unwilling to let my attention be on anything other than our important work, or the safety of the men and women of the NYPD,” Caban said in an email to members of the NYPD, which was obtained by NBC News.

"I hold immense respect and gratitude for the brave officers who serve this department, and the NYPD deserves someone who can solely focus on protecting and serving New York City, which is why — for the good of this city and this department — I have made the difficult decision to resign as police commissioner," the email added.

Adams, speaking in an address later Thursday, announced that he was appointing Thomas Donlon as the interim police commissioner. Donlon is a national security expert who previously ran the FBI’s National Threat Center and the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force. He was also the New York state director of the Office of Homeland Security.

Caban's phone was seized last week around the same time that FBI agents raided the homes of top Adams administration officials as part of a separate probe. Those whose homes were searched included First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III.

Caban's twin brother, James Caban, who owns a nightclub security business, also had his phone seized in the corruption investigation involving the NYPD.

Federal investigators want to know if James Caban profited from his ties to his powerful brother and the NYPD, according to multiple sources. Specifically, the investigation is looking into whether James Caban was paid by bars and clubs in Midtown Manhattan and Queens to act as a police liaison, and if those clubs were then afforded special treatment by local precincts, the sources said.

Lawyers for Edward Caban described him in a statement as an "accomplished public servant who has dedicated his life to the safety and security of the people of this great city."

"We have been informed by the government that he is not a target of any investigation being conducted by the Southern District of New York, and he expects to cooperate fully with the government," said the lawyers, Russell Capone and Rebekah Donaleski.

Jesus. Reading that, I was expecting Huggy Bear to show up.
 
Just going to put it out there: shooting and killing a judge when you're a sheriff: probably not a good idea.


 
Just going to put it out there: shooting and killing a judge when you're a sheriff: probably not a good idea.



Meanwhile, I can hear the banjo music from here... ;)


Kentucky sheriff charged in fatal shooting of judge inside courthouse chambers​


Lead county prosecutor Matt Butler described an outpouring of sympathy as he recused himself and his office from investigations in the shooting, citing social and family ties to Mullins.

"We all know each other here … Anyone from Letcher County would tell you that Judge Mullins and I married sisters and that we have children who are first cousins but act like siblings," Butler said in statement from his office. "For that reason, among others, I have already taken steps to recuse myself and my entire office."

 
Hoo boy...


'Atrocious' comments by RCMP officers alleged in internal probe​

Search warrant obtained by CBC claims officers joked about sexual assault and Tasering Black people

WARNING: This story contains offensive language.

In one private chat group conversation, a Mountie was accused of saying a new female employee "was overweight and insinuating that the shape of her vagina was visible through her clothing."

In another, a second RCMP officer allegedly bragged about "Tasering unarmed Black people" and called a sexual assault investigation "stupid" — drawing comments from other members of the online group who "made fun of the victim" and said, "she's a dumb Mexican c--t."

An investigator with the RCMP's professional standards unit detailed those allegations and many more in a search warrant sworn to obtain evidence now being used to call for the firing of three Coquitlam Mounties for violating the force's code of conduct.

The CBC has obtained a copy of the search warrant — which recounts behaviour which led the officer who sparked the investigation to complain to RCMP brass about what he saw as "atrocious" and "racist and horrible" activity in a private group operating on the Signal messaging app.

The documents reveal that investigators also reviewed 600,000 messages posted to the RCMP's internal mobile data chat logs — finding evidence of "frequently offensive" usage by the three officers facing termination of "homophobic and racist slurs."

"The reviewers had identified a variety of comments that were 'chauvinist in nature, with a strong air of superiority, and include flippant or insulting remarks about clients (including objectifying women), supervisors, colleagues, policy and the RCMP as a whole,'" the warrant says.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...=newsletter_CBC British Columbia_1633_1725717
 
Quel suprise...



High-ranking Montreal police officer accuses force of racism in resignation letter​



A high-ranking Montreal police officer says racism is a “cancer eating away at the organization” in a resignation letter marking the end of his 30-year career with the force.

Commander Patrice Vilcéus, a Montrealer of Haitian origin, says there are a few managers in the city’s police force who are affecting the mental health of its members and even causing some to leave. In a letter obtained by The Canadian Press and other media outlets, he wrote that he fought “all forms of unjust exclusion and unfair treatment” during his career.

“I’ve been careful not to remain a mere observer of racism, racial profiling and social challenges,” he wrote. “My aim has been to break taboos and introduce more nuanced approaches.”

Vilcéus said the Montreal police need to “overcome the resistance of certain managers who defend the status quo with sterile visions, as they prevent the organization from … modernizing in the face of new realities.” He said the force should embrace more diverse perspectives.

“How can we serve all populations, if some internally are not listened to or respected and are instead discredited?” he wrote.

Asked about the letter in Quebec City on Wednesday, Public Security Minister François Bonnardel said it was “troubling” and that he had no doubt Vilcéus had lived through “difficult situations,” but he didn’t go further. “I have never believed that there’s systemic racism in the police,” he told reporters.


 
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