Arkansas Blog

I suspect the reaction from the law-and-order crowd will be "That will never happen to me, so I don't care that the government can break into my home, shoot me, and then arrest me for being shot."

If someone busts down my door in the middle of the night, should I be expected to ask for their ID before defending myself from someone in a ninja uniform carrying an assault rifle?

Reminds me of something that happened 20 years ago in Fort Baptist. Gene Gene the dancing machine was well known for selling coke, crack...what have you. He probably did a little business on his mail route. So the cops were up a creek when they decided to knock down his door and arrest the fire out of him....they were up a creek because they picked the one day out of the last 10 year that Gene didn't have any drugs on the premises. Snot a drop or drab to be found.

While Gene was cooling his heels in jail some prosecutor type found out Gene's lawyer was in a bit of trouble after running over an old lady while drunk as a skunk in another part of the state. They used that to get Gene's lawyer to flip him and Gene wound up getting life in prison for selling cocaine....even though there was no cocaine to sell.

Gene spent a number of years in prison before he found a lawyer to take his case. In the end, Gene was set free and apparently has sinned no more. But late at night when I have nothing else to worry about....I worry about what happened to Gene Gene the dancing machine and think about how it might happen to any of us on a really bad day for all involved. Looks like the NLR cops have lots of s'plainin to do.

Does anyone know the name of the judge that set the bail at $250,000? We might have a chance to get this loser thrown out of office if we get to work now.

I think the state needs to step in and take control of the NLRPD, reform it, and then return it to the city with lots of stipulations. It is run like a personal fiefdom with cops and corrupt judges covering one another's you know what. If the local media is gutless and won't fulfill its societal role and investigate, then someone ought to contact 60 Minutes so the entire sordid mess is exposed. That nexis of "good ole boy business as usual" is especially rancid when it comes to race. Some of these folks are outlaws with badges.

Amen, Janus.. As an upstanding citizen with no smudges on my record.. I will just say all of my insecure experiences over the last 40 years in NLR involved the police.

Max,
For once im going to agree with you. No knock warrants are the biggest load of shit on earth.
Any police agency conducting a no knock raid deserves to be shot back at, because you know they will shoot first.
jmp

We all know mistakes are made. Didn't one of these mistakes happen in Jacksonville about a year ago. No one injured but killing or maiming one innocent person is too many.

There are 3 houses of similar design to mine in my neighborhood. In pre-dawn I could see the wrong one getting "no-knocked". My dog would be attacking and he would be shot, that would surely fool me into thinking that my family was being home invasion robbed and I would come out swinging and possibly firing. I would expect to die at this point but sacrificing myself hoping to save my family.

The only criminal that should justifiably be "no-knock" served would be a multiple murderer that has shown to be a deadly threat to police in the past.

The whole reason the cops want to "no knock" is to preserve evidence. Surprise them before they can flush the contraband. Is preserving evidence in a non violent crime worth putting police and the public at risk of death?

This out-of-control BS is what the "war on drugs" has perpetrated - we don't have no-knock warrants up here (that we know of) but we DO have corrupt cops, enabling prosecutor and cowed press. Anyone who "speaks truth to power" is in a world of hurt and there is NO way out, as the predominant trait of the "hill culture" up here is conformity/status quo.

Recent LTE's about the sheriff's lack of accountability for failing the state audits EVER SINCE HE'S BEEN IN OFFICE were met with charges of "being mean" to the sheriff, suggestions that "people from other regions" (who don't get the conformity/status quo paradigm) are the problem (i.e. xenophobia) and that "the government changes the reporting requirements" making it oh, so hard to keep frigging books on over $1M/year - for 3 years and counting of: "Noncompliance with state law and accepted accounting practices."

There is NO accountability for official malfeasance in this sorry place, because the people (as Barack accurately suggested) "cling" to the status quo - especially where the failed, yet ever-popular "war" on drugs is concerned! Just like the wedding party in NYC which was fired upon for NO REASON, killing the prospective groom, the NLR cops will walk for wasting this guy (even tho' he didn't die [yet]).

The "authorities" have recently scared the whee out of local press, so it has clammed up - won't even print critical LTE's any longer...and so it goes.
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Anybody got an egg timer so we can track the turnaround from evidence (drugs/guns) being locked up in the NLR evidence locker until that same contraband makes its way back onto the streets with the help of corrupt officers?

I've never been arrested, I've never been charged with a crime. Completely clean record. Most of my ideas on how this horribly corrupt system works come from cops; friends who chose the profession and tell stories of these things happening daily. From the specific examples I've been told of, NLR is one of the worst in the central AR area.

Pat Hayes needs to tighten the leash on his attack dogs before things get any more out of hand.

Thank you for doing this story AT! Given the cowering by our msm this took balls!

The War on Drugs is no more than a War on People. Just recall that 88% of all U.S.
currency has traces of cocaine on it. 88% of us could be busted at any time we
have paper money.

I'm getting rid of the food scale we have from my partner's stint with Weight Watchers.

The killing of a 92-year-old Atlanta woman during a police drug raid has led to new questions about the practice of "no-knock" raids, the Christian Science Monitor reported Nov. 29."
http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2006/no-knock-drug-raids.html

"Enough Is Enough": Petition to Limit Paramilitary Police Raids in America
http://ga0.org/campaign/enough_is_enough

For a partial listing of several victims in the War on People go here:
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/08/17/drugWarVictims.html

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As a veteran of the marijuana wars and a political refugee from alabummer, let me assure you all that, knock or no-knock, if the man wants you the man gets you. Or, as in the case of Mr. Ingle(and thousands of others), the man gets you whether he "wants" you or not. As Larry suggests, there's a whole lotta clinging goin' on out there: better police your local support.

"As a veteran of the marijuana wars and a political refugee from alabummer, let me assure you all that, knock or no-knock, if the man wants you the man gets you. Or, as in the case of Mr. Ingle(and thousands of others), the man gets you whether he "wants" you or not. As Larry suggests, there's a whole lotta clinging goin' on out there: better police your local support."

"We all know mistakes are made. Didn't one of these mistakes happen in Jacksonville about a year ago. No one injured but killing or maiming one innocent person is too many.

There are 3 houses of similar design to mine in my neighborhood. In pre-dawn I could see the wrong one getting "no-knocked". My dog would be attacking and he would be shot, that would surely fool me into thinking that my family was being home invasion robbed and I would come out swinging and possibly firing. I would expect to die at this point but sacrificing myself hoping to save my family.

The only criminal that should justifiably be "no-knock" served would be a multiple murderer that has shown to be a deadly threat to police in the past.

The whole reason the cops want to "no knock" is to preserve evidence. Surprise them before they can flush the contraband. Is preserving evidence in a non violent crime worth putting police and the public at risk of death?"

"I suspect the reaction from the law-and-order crowd will be "That will never happen to me, so I don't care that the government can break into my home, shoot me, and then arrest me for being shot."

If someone busts down my door in the middle of the night, should I be expected to ask for their ID before defending myself from someone in a ninja uniform carrying an assault rifle?"

While I do believe that there are some very good cops who truly wishes to serve their communities; it is my home and I still have the responsibility and the privilege to defend it.

Speaking of errors, travesties and outright hypocrisies of the law by all means watch this video about a mentally retarded man in La. being sentenced to death for child rape. The perp is retarded.
blue name

I am Tracy Ingle's sister. Our family wishes to extend thanks to the kind words and support we have received during the past 24 hours. A site has been set up for Tracy called Justicefortracy.com
Information, photos, links and how to support Tracy can be located on this page.
Please, we really need your help in getting Media attention to this gross injustice. Write, call, email, blog.....tell everyone about his story.
Together we can bring JUSTICE to Tracy!

Thank you,
Tiffney

What' was the name of the guy in the late 70's or early 80's who the NLR police framed for shooting a cop? He was finally released, but then later arrested for having drugs in Las Vegas, I believe.