Grandmother traumatized after traffic stop by Chicago police

[swiftfoxmark2]

Grandmother traumatized after traffic stop by Chicago police

A West Side grandmother is recovering from bruises to her arm after a Tuesday traffic stop by Chicago police left her and her two, young grandchildren emotionally damaged.

On Thursday she filed a compliant with the Independent Police Review Authority and was scheduled to meet with police brass at Area 5 headquarters, 5555 W. Grand Ave.

“If I am ever stopped again by the Chicago police while driving I will be scared for my safety,” Jimmie Osideko, 50, told the Defender. “There was no reason for these officers to ‘man’ handle me the way they did especially in front of my grandchildren.”

Osideko, who lives in the Austin community, said she was leaving choir rehearsal from Greater St. John Bible Church on the West Side around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when she was forced to stop her car because there was a car double-parked in the street.

“Two plain clothes police officers then pulled up behind me and was blowing their horn and shouting for me to pull over but I couldn’t because I was blocked in,” she recalls. “So when I did not move my car the officers drove up beside me and ordered me out my car and that’s when all hell broke loose.”

According to Osideko, once she stepped out her car, one officer allegedly grabbed her and twisted her right arm so hard she suffered bruises, which were visible two days after the allege incident that took place at the corner of 1200 N. Menard.

Roderick Drew, news affairs director for the Chicago Police Department, said he was looking into the incident but could not comment until any further until then.

The Defender could not reach a spokesperson for IPRA.

Witnessing the arrest in addition to onlookers were Osideko’s 2- and 4 year-old grandsons, who rode with her in the car.

“My grandkids are emotionally damaged for life. They were screaming at the officers to let me go and to not her me but their cries went unnoticed as this one officer slammed my head against the car and then handcuffed me and threw me into his squad car,” she added.

Osideko was ticketed for not having a driver’s license and not having the kids properly strapped in their car seats although she denies her grandkids were not strapped in securely. She also said she did not resist arrest or get loud with the officers despite her treatment.

Her nightmare got worse once two female police officers arrived, she said.

“One female officer searched me before transferring me into her squad car, and while doing so my breasts were exposed further humiliating me in front of my grandkids and innocent bystanders,” she said. “Just luckily one of my friends were among the bystanders and she looked after my grandkids until I was released from jail around 3:30 a.m.”

The incident has West Side community leaders upset and wanting answers from the police about their plans to address the issue of excessive force.

“These officers do not represent what the Chicago police is all about. They are not the norm but the exception,” the Rev. Ira Acree, pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church, said at a Tuesday news conference. “It makes no sense for an officer to put his hands on a woman so aggressively.”

Regardless of the incident, the Rev. Marshal Hatch, pastor of New Mt. Pilgrim Church on the West Side, said he would continue to work with the police to improve strained relations that currently exist between them and the Black community.

“We will continue to work with the police (but only) when they are right,” he said. “They must be reprimanded when they are wrong.”

Chicago police are nothing but thugs.

By the way, has anyone invited Tak?

[Doc Trock]

Just another isolated incident in a long line of isolated incidents.....

[dsmbaptist]

I'll invite Tak right now!

But I don't know him all that well...can you suggest what to say to him?

[Doc Trock]

I'll invite Tak right now!

But I don't know him all that well...can you suggest what to say to him?

Tell him we're all here, and we'd like him to participate if he wishes to do so.

[dsmbaptist]

I'll invite Tak right now!

But I don't know him all that well...can you suggest what to say to him?

Tell him we're all here, and we'd like him to participate if he wishes to do so.

Well, I got to thinking about it, and I just went ahead and sent him the invite. I just needed to givce myself that little push!

[swiftfoxmark2]

Innocent man may be labeled a sex offender for 'rest of his life'

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. -- It has been a nightmare for Dan Wheeler for 15 years. It started with his wallet being stolen from his truck, and his identity stolen. Usually the trouble that follows has to do with bank or credit fraud, but Wheeler says his identity was stolen by a sex offender who was arrested and used Wheeler's name as an alias.

"It's been absolutely miserable," said Wheeler.

About five years ago the Port Orchard man was stopped for making an illegal left turn.

"The officer told me to get out of the car and I was under arrest," said Wheeler. "I asked why and he said I was a wanted sex offender. I couldn't believe it."

Since then, Wheeler has been fighting desperately to get his identity back. He has a difficult timing getting any kind of job that involves a background check, and was recently rejected as a foster parent -- all because of a case of stolen identity.

"I've been to police and prosecutors and they all tell me there's nothing that can be done," said Wheeler.

He may be right. A spokesman for the Washington State Patrol, which handles the State Sex Offenders Database, says when someone is arrested and uses an alias, that alias is kept on file forever. The concern is that if authorities delete the alias, the criminal could go back to using it again.

Wheeler doesn't know where to turn. For now, he just hopes he gets the job he recently applied for, as a maintenence worker at an assisted living facility.

"But they require a background check," he said. "Who knows if they'll believe me?"

In other words, you're all child molesters, you just haven't been caught yet.

[swiftfoxmark2]

Mother Arrested, Jailed for Expired Tags

A Kensington, Maryland mother spent most of the evening, last Thursday, in handcuffs or in jail in the District of Columbia. Her transgression? Driving her car with expired license plates.

41-year-old Nycci Nellis was pulled over by a D.C. police officer on Military Road around 6:45 p.m.

"She pulled me out of my car, and... handcuffed me," said Nellis.

After Nellis was transported to the Second District police station, she was then taken to central booking downtown.

"It was a terrifying experience, having never been in a prison or jail before," explained Nellis.
"There were a lot of people in there. There were a lot of people who were unhappy to be there, and they were very vocal about it."

After Nellis was given a court date, she was released.

The public affairs division of D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department declined an on-camera interview about Nycci Nellis' case.

But one officer told us there are 'general orders' applicable to traffic stops involving expired registration. According to that officer, police are advised to write a ticket if the license plates are expired by only a few days.

But, he said, if a motorist has been stopped driving with plates that have been expired for a 'substantial period', an arrest is made.

John Townsend, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, thinks an arrest for expired plates is, "over the top."

"In most other jurisdictions, including Virginia and Maryland," Townsend told us, "you would not be arrested for this.

And this is why [it's] so shocking and it sends chills up the spines of motorists everywhere, because we're in and out of all the jurisdictions all of the time."

The D.C. officer who spoke with us also mentioned that driving in the city with an expired operator's license also generally leads to an arrest.

That'll teach you all for disobeying the law.

[swiftfoxmark2]

Man alleges police used excessive force

What started as a walk to the park ended with a trip to the hospital for a Denver dog owner. 32-year-old Mark Ashford says he was beaten black and blue by two Denver Police officers.

"They punched him and pinned him up against the fence and forced his head into the concrete." Ashford's attorney, Will Hart, said the beating that was caught on camera is a clear case of Excessive Force. "This happened when he was walking his dogs, he has a conversation with another citizen that the police officer doesn't like and as a result, he ends up in the hospital," said Hart.

Hart says Mark Ashford was walking his dogs near 20th and Little Raven in LoDo, when he saw police pull over a driver for failing to stop at a stop sign. Ashford told the driver he saw him stop and would be willing to testify in court. Hart says the officer overheard him and "wasn't very happy."

That's when Ashford says the Denver police officers demanded his I.D. and detained him. Ashford tried to take a picture of the officers to document the incident, and a few second later he was on the ground.

Police charged Ashford with interference and resisting arrest. Hart says, the charges were later dropped because the officers violated Ashford's 4th amendment rights, "they had no reason to stop him, take his ID or detain him."

An Excessive Force complaint was filed against both officers involved. A Denver police spokesperson says the internal affairs department has completed its investigation, but they are now turning the case over to the independent police monitor. Police won't say if the officers were disciplined in any way until the investigation is complete.

Would it hurt if I made a sticky topic involving our police state?

[Owen 16]

We are seeing more and more of this type of allegation, and with each new allegation it becomes more and more difficult to believe that we are NOT a police state.

Public officials are getting more and more beligerent about being captured on tape or video or digitally, and we are seeing the results of that beligerence in the laws being passed that disallow the taping of arrests and the refusal to allow cameras into "town hall" meetings.

This needs to stop. We need to get more true conservatives running for local offices to insure that sunlight disinfects the process.

[Doc Trock]

We are seeing more and more of this type of allegation, and with each new allegation it becomes more and more difficult to believe that we are NOT a police state.

Public officials are getting more and more beligerent about being captured on tape or video or digitally, and we are seeing the results of that beligerence in the laws being passed that disallow the taping of arrests and the refusal to allow cameras into "town hall" meetings.

This needs to stop. We need to get more true conservatives running for local offices to insure that sunlight disinfects the process.

I would love to have a sticky police abuse thread. In my mind, it's one of the most important changes that's taken place in America....and for some reason decent folks don't want to even consider the idea that police have changed.

What bothers me is the way anyone who works for the government (except if they're democrats) are worshipped by law and order types. Police are always "putting their life on the line for us," etc.

I'm sorry, I don't buy that. Where I live the police are frighteningly corrupt.

[Owen 16]

We are seeing more and more of this type of allegation, and with each new allegation it becomes more and more difficult to believe that we are NOT a police state.

Public officials are getting more and more beligerent about being captured on tape or video or digitally, and we are seeing the results of that beligerence in the laws being passed that disallow the taping of arrests and the refusal to allow cameras into "town hall" meetings.

This needs to stop. We need to get more true conservatives running for local offices to insure that sunlight disinfects the process.

I would love to have a sticky police abuse thread. In my mind, it's one of the most important changes that's taken place in America....and for some reason decent folks don't want to even consider the idea that police have changed.

What bothers me is the way anyone who works for the government (except if they're democrats) are worshipped by law and order types. Police are always "putting their life on the line for us," etc.

I'm sorry, I don't buy that. Where I live the police are frighteningly corrupt.

You ought to try living in Detroit! The police here are not only frighteningly corrupt, but their leadership, such that it is, is also frighteningly inept, at both their jobs and at corruption.

[swiftfoxmark2]

We are seeing more and more of this type of allegation, and with each new allegation it becomes more and more difficult to believe that we are NOT a police state.

Public officials are getting more and more beligerent about being captured on tape or video or digitally, and we are seeing the results of that beligerence in the laws being passed that disallow the taping of arrests and the refusal to allow cameras into "town hall" meetings.

This needs to stop. We need to get more true conservatives running for local offices to insure that sunlight disinfects the process.

I would love to have a sticky police abuse thread. In my mind, it's one of the most important changes that's taken place in America....and for some reason decent folks don't want to even consider the idea that police have changed.

What bothers me is the way anyone who works for the government (except if they're democrats) are worshipped by law and order types. Police are always "putting their life on the line for us," etc.

I'm sorry, I don't buy that. Where I live the police are frighteningly corrupt.

You ought to try living in Detroit! The police here are not only frighteningly corrupt, but their leadership, such that it is, is also frighteningly inept, at both their jobs and at corruption.

That's pretty funny. You'd think that if you were corrupt and in a high position of authority, you'd be really good at it, much like how a man will hide his pornography from his wife (there is usually a secret trapdoor in the basement).

Which is what makes Charlie Rangel's self-inflicted problems so strange. Maybe he just got too arrogant and believed that no one would call him on it or something...

[swiftfoxmark2]

Fire-breathing bartenders arrested, face 45 years

Two fire-breathing bartenders face up to 45 years in prison each for performing flaming bar tricks.

Jimmy's Old Town Tavern owner Jimmy Cirrito said his bartenders have been entertaining his customers -- by juggling bottles of alcohol and spitting out streams of flames using matchbooks and lighters -- for more than a decade and no one's complained. But shortly after midnight on July 24, two of his longtime employees were hauled out of the Herndon bar in handcuffs and charged with three felonies each plus other misdemeanors

"They were being treated as if they were terrorists, charged as if they intentionally tried to burn down the tavern," Cirrito said.

Fairfax County fire investigators charged Tegee Rogers, 33, of Herndon, and Justin Fedorchak, 39, of Manassas, with manufacturing an explosive device, setting a fire capable of spreading, and burning or destroying a meeting house. They also were charged with several state fire code misdemeanors.

Both men have worked at the tavern nearly since it opened. They both recently became fathers and are very anxious about facing serious criminal charges, Cirrito said.

Jimmy's Old Town Tavern bartenders have performed the fire-breathing act for 13 years, at first doing the tricks on special occasions like birthdays or to honor a fallen fireman, police officer or soldier, Cirrito said. By 1999, the fire-breathing bartenders had become a Friday midnight tradition, he said. The bar uses the fire-breathing bartenders on its advertisements.

Cirrito said an investigator told him that the marshals received a letter in the mail with a photo taken of a previous performance at the bar.

Cirrito said he has never received a warning from the fire marshals, and he would have stopped if marshals had given him a warning.

"But I don't think we've done anything wrong," he said. "There's a lot of fire in restaurants. I've been served flaming desserts, I've roasted marshmallows on tables, I've seen 75 candles and sparklers on cakes, and I've seen bartenders perform the tricks coast-to-coast and no one's been arrested."

This coming from the area I live in. I guess my Godzilla movie is out of the question now.

[Doc Trock]

Ah......safety.

[Doc Trock]

Follow this link to yet another story that illustrates the fact that we're now a police state:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/63930.html

Nobles and peasants. That's how you organize a kingdom.

[swiftfoxmark2]

Follow this link to yet another story that illustrates the fact that we're now a police state:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/63930.html

Nobles and peasants. That's how you organize a kingdom.

Actually, it's a few posts up:

https://classicconservatives.forumotion.net/conservative-s-home-f1/official-police-state-thread-t112.htm#554

[annie]

I would love to have a sticky police abuse thread. In my mind, it's one of the most important changes that's taken place in America....and for some reason decent folks don't want to even consider the idea that police have changed.

The police have changed but so have we all as people - a forgiving people we no longer are. Today we are out to punish, teach by "example", throw in jail, sue as punishment, ruin lives, destroy families, as long as we make the culprit pay for what they've "done." That culprit doesn't even have to break a law actually, all they need do is offend us somehow. Freedom to Americans today seems to mean not needing to show any tolerence of others whatsoever - and police officiousness (often to the point of brutality and illegality) is a glaring example of what we as a people have become imo.

[Doc Trock]

I would love to have a sticky police abuse thread. In my mind, it's one of the most important changes that's taken place in America....and for some reason decent folks don't want to even consider the idea that police have changed.

The police have changed but so have we all as people - a forgiving people we no longer are. Today we are out to punish, teach by "example", throw in jail, sue as punishment, ruin lives, destroy families, as long as we make the culprit pay for what they've "done." That culprit doesn't even have to break a law actually, all they need do is offend us somehow. Freedom to Americans today seems to mean not needing to show any tolerence of others whatsoever - and police officiousness (often to the point of brutality and illegality) is a glaring example of what we as a people have become imo.

Yes....and police should be above all of that, and should exemplify good values. Instead, they lead the way down...

[annie]

I would love to have a sticky police abuse thread. In my mind, it's one of the most important changes that's taken place in America....and for some reason decent folks don't want to even consider the idea that police have changed.

The police have changed but so have we all as people - a forgiving people we no longer are. Today we are out to punish, teach by "example", throw in jail, sue as punishment, ruin lives, destroy families, as long as we make the culprit pay for what they've "done." That culprit doesn't even have to break a law actually, all they need do is offend us somehow. Freedom to Americans today seems to mean not needing to show any tolerence of others whatsoever - and police officiousness (often to the point of brutality and illegality) is a glaring example of what we as a people have become imo.

Yes....and police should be above all of that, and should exemplify good values. Instead, they lead the way down...

Yes they should be above all that and they are not. I also do not see things improving. When "conservatives" , people who claim to be "defenders of the Constitution" , applaud and defend police who violate the law and people's civil rights in the name of justice, you've got big problems.

[swiftfoxmark2]

An infuriating search at Philadelphia International Airport

At what point does an airport search step over the line?

How about when they start going through your checks, and the police call your husband, suspicious you were clearing out the bank account?

That's the complaint leveled by Kathy Parker, a 43-year-old Elkton, Md., woman, who was flying out of Philadelphia International Airport on Aug. 8.

She says she was heading to Charlotte, N.C., for work that Sunday night - she's a business support manager for a large bank - and was selected for a more in-depth search after she passed through the metal detectors at Gate B around 5:15 p.m.

A female Transportation Security Administration officer wanded her and patted her down, she says. Then she was walked over to where other TSA officers were searching her bags.

"Everything in my purse was out, including my wallet and my checkbook. I had two prescriptions in there. One was diet pills. This was embarrassing. A TSA officer said, 'Hey, I've always been curious about these. Do they work?'

"I was just so taken aback, I said, 'Yeah.' "

What happened next, she says, was more than embarrassing. It was infuriating.

That same screener started emptying her wallet. "He was taking out the receipts and looking at them," she said.

"I understand that TSA is tasked with strengthening national security but [it] surely does not need to know what I purchased at Kohl's or Wal-Mart," she wrote in her complaint, which she sent me last week.

She says she asked what he was looking for and he replied, "Razor blades." She wondered, "Wouldn't that have shown up on the metal detector?"

In a side pocket she had tucked a deposit slip and seven checks made out to her and her husband, worth about $8,000.

Her thought: "Oh, my God, this is none of his business."

Two Philadelphia police officers joined at least four TSA officers who had gathered around her. After conferring with the TSA screeners, one of the Philadelphia officers told her he was there because her checks were numbered sequentially, which she says they were not.

"It's an indication you've embezzled these checks," she says the police officer told her. He also told her she appeared nervous. She hadn't before that moment, she says.

She protested when the officer started to walk away with the checks. "That's my money," she remembers saying. The officer's reply? "It's not your money."

At this point she told the officers that she had a good explanation for the checks, but questioned whether she had to tell them.

"The police officer said if you don't tell me, you can tell the D.A."

So she explained that she and her husband had been on vacation, that they'd accumulated some hefty checks, and that she was headed to her bank's headquarters, where she intended to deposit them.

She gave police her husband's cell-phone number - he was at her mother's with their children and missed their call.

Thirty minutes after the police became involved, they decided to let her collect her belongings and board her plane.

"I was shaking," she says. "I was almost in tears."

When she got home, her husband of 20 years, John Parker, a self-employed plastics broker, said the police had called and told him that they'd suspected "a divorce situation" and that Kathy Parker was trying to empty their bank account. He set them straight.

"I was so humiliated," she said.

What happened sounds to me like a violation of a TSA policy that went into effect Sept. 1, after the American Civil Liberties Union sued the agency on behalf of the former campaign treasurer of presidential candidate Ron Paul.

In that case, Steven Bierfeldt was detained after screeners at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport discovered he was carrying about $4,700 in cash. He challenged their request that he explain where his money came from.

The new TSA directive reads: "Screening may not be conducted to detect evidence of crimes unrelated to transportation security." If evidence of a crime is discovered, then TSA agents are instructed to contact the appropriate law enforcement agency.

So just what evidence made them treat Kathy Parker like a criminal?

Lt. Frank Vanore, a Philadelphia police spokesman, said that TSA personnel had called his officers, who found the checks to be "almost sequential." They were "just checking to make sure there was nothing fraudulent," he said. "They were wondering what the story was. The officer got it cleared up."

TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said the reason Parker was selected for in-depth screening was that her actions at the airport had aroused the suspicion of a behavior detection officer, and that she continued to act "as if she feared discovery."

"We need to ascertain whether fear of discovery is due to the fact a person is concealing a threatening item, be it a dangerous weapon or some kind of explosive," Davis said. "If the search is complete, and shows individuals not to be a threat to the aircraft or fellow passengers, they are free to go."

But why call police? Davis said, "Because her behavior escalated."

When Parker first told me her story, she didn't know the initial TSA officer was a behavior specialist. She told me he peppered her with questions about her trip as she knelt to consolidate three bags into two, and suddenly realized that her shirt was revealing too much for her comfort. When the man then volunteered to examine her belongings, she felt "it was just strange."

"When they decided to search me, there was nothing wrong with my behavior," she said. "I was trying to keep a positive demeanor about everything. My behavior didn't escalate. I did ask questions."

Vic Walczak, legal director of the Pennsylvania ACLU, called what happened to Parker "preposterous" and a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches.

"I think they clearly crossed the line," he said, adding that no one had probable cause to examine her checks.

"None of this makes any sense except as a fishing expedition, which under the U.S. Constitution is not allowed. They can't rummage through her personal life. I'm not surprised this woman is outraged. She should be."

Attention Federal Government: It's none of your damn business what we do with our money.

[Doc Trock]

Well sure it's none of their business what we do with our money.....but we don't have any money. Everything we have is the governments....therefore it's their business.

[imaginethat]

The government is in debt to the bankers. Everything we have is the bankers, including the government.

[Doc Trock]

The government is in debt to the bankers. Everything we have is the bankers, including the government.

Yes! I concede this point to you. The bankers have used to government to get all our money. Very true.

[Owen 16]

I fly a lot. I have averaged about 100 takeoffs a year for the last ten years. I have never experienced anything close to that, nor have I ever witnessed anything like that. But, whether this incident was exaggerated or not, the process of going through "security" is worthless when it comes to insuring safe skies. The TSA agents are poorly trained and often lazy. The system is designed to reinforce compliance, not to make us safer. If I could afford my own plane, I would gladly pay for it to avoid the waste of time that is our transportation "security" system.

[swiftfoxmark2]

Oh, I've managed to get more than 3 oz. of liquid through security. It's bogus anyhow since there are some substances that could easily blow a hole in an airplane window with only three ounces.

Then there's Cesium, an alkaline metal that only requires water to ignite. Of course, you'll need to transport it in an air-tight container...

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