By Noddy (DailyKos) The chances are increasing that your child will be arrested for being a child and behaving in a childish fashion at school. Behavior that once got a child a trip to the principal’s office or detention will now get them booked at the police station. Doubt me? Look it up: a 5 year old arrested for having a temper tantrum in kindergarten and a 12 year old arrested for scribbling on a desk, a 13 year old boy was arrested for burping, a 5th grader arrested for giving a wedgie, and I’m sure you can find more.
It’s never too early to teach your child what to do if they get arrested at school for normal behavior, as demonstrated by the arrest of the above children.
So what do you teach your child?
Pretty much the same things you would do yourself, but the most important one is to teach your child to tell the arresting police officer, “I want a lawyer.” School officials and police officers won’t call the parents, because they don’t think parents have any need to know their child is being removed from the school. In the case of the 5 year old, it wasn’t the school principal who called the parents or the police – it was a guidance counselor who felt the need to inform the mother. Teach your child those critical 4 words – “I want a lawyer” – the police by law have to respect that regardless of the age of the arrestee.
I am not a lawyer or a police officer, but almost everyone in my family is in law enforcement – highway patrol, county sheriffs, lake patrol, city police, police detectives, police forensics…this is what they advise and told me and my children to do. The two most important things are: Say the two sentences and nothing else, and don’t touch the police. Other things may vary from state to state, but the gist of the following can help keep your child safe. That “I want a lawyer” sentence will be the lifesaver for your child – the lawyer will call you and take care of the child. If you teach your child nothing else, teach them to say “I want a lawyer” as soon as the police arrive.
The older the child is, the more you can teach, but start with those 4 life-saving words. “I want a lawyer.” Even a three year old can learn to say that. You may need to teach your three year old to say that if day cares start emulating schools and calling the police on minor disciplinary issues. Play-act it with toy handcuffs, or even real ones. zip tie or metal – those are easy enough to find at flea markets. When the handcuffs come out, teach the child to say, “I want a lawyer.” Make it a game when they are young, and re-enforce it as they age.
via Daily Kos: Teach Your Child How to Survive Being Arrested at School.
By Allison Kilkenny (In These Times) When a series of crackdowns on the Occupy camps suddenly occurred in, more or less, the same week, many observers wondered if perhaps the attacks had been coordinated at a national level. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan confirmed that suspicion during an appearance on the BBC – excerpted on The Takeaway radio program – when she casually mentioned taking part in a conference call with the leaders of 18 US cities right before the raids.
“I was recently on a conference call with 18 cities across the country who had the same situation,” said Quan.
It turns out one of the 18 leaders who sat in on the call was Portland Mayor Sam Adams. The calls, according to Adams, were organized “to share information about the occupying encampments around the country.” He described the calls to the New York Times as “check-ins to share information and advice on how various cities were handling the demonstrations.”
In addition to conferring with their fellow mayors, it appears city leadership also received an assist from the Department of Homeland Security, according to journalist Rick Ellis at the Examiner. Ellis spoke with a Justice official, who claims each of the Occupy raid actions were coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI, and other federal police agencies.
via Did Mayors, DHS Coordinate Occupy Attacks? – Uprising.
By Kristen Gwynne (AlterNet) The NYPD has been under fire in recent months for illegal searches resulting in thousands of low-level marijuana arrests, mostly of people of color. As corrupt as this practice is, testimony from Stephen Anderson, a former NYPD narcotics detective, shows it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
According to Anderson, who testified at trial Wednesday, New York City police regularly planted drugs on innocent people to meet quotas. Anderson should know. He was arrested in 2008 for planting cocaine on four men in a bar in Queens. His statements are the first glimpse into a culture of set-ups at the Brooklyn South and Queens Narc squads where eight corrupt cops were arrested.
Anderson says his own stunt was a tactic to help officer Henry Tavarez meet his buy-and-bust quota. But the incident was not limited to a handful of men. According to Anderson, “It was something I was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercovers and even investigators.”
Anderson’s case suggests the set-ups are a response to the pressure bosses force on police to make drug arrests.
via Former Detective: NYPD Planted Drugs on People to Meet Drug Arrest Quotas | Drugs | AlterNet.
By James B. Kelleher and Cynthia Johnston (Reuters) An 87-year-old Indiana man was arraigned on drug charges in federal court in Detroit on Monday after police found 228 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $2.9 million in his pickup following a routine traffic stop.
via Indiana man, 87, nabbed with 228 pounds of cocaine, police say – chicagotribune.com.
By Tamsin McMahon (National Post) The City of Saskatoon issued an apology this week to residents after police shut down one of the community’s main bridges for three hours so a bomb squad could probe a mysterious box chained to a lamp post that turned out to be a city-owned traffic counter.
The hard plastic waterproof box, known as a Pelican case, was resting “at the base of the pole,” said police spokeswoman Alyson Edwards.
While they determined there weren’t any explosives, police warned the public that night that the box did contain “electronic equipment capable of capturing and transmitting traffic and/or pedestrian data to an unknown location.”
“A potential owner for the equipment has not been identified as of yet,” they said, prompting a flurry of Wednesday morning media accounts of a “mystery box” found on the bridge.
“I literally read it in the paper and said I know exactly what that is,” said Don Cook, a city transportation planning engineer.City traffic workers had installed the device on Tuesday morning. While Mr. Cook said the city has been using traffic counters in boxes, including at the bridge location, for “decades,” they usually involve pneumatic tubes that stick out onto the roadway, or video cameras. This one, which uses a radar to record traffic volume, speed and pedestrian data that can be remotely downloaded to city computers, was new to Saskatoon this year.
via ‘Bomb’ that shut down Saskatoon bridge really city-owned traffic counter | News | National Post.
By Leigh Paynter (ABC News10) Kenneth Wright came downstairs in his boxer shorts as a S.W.A.T team barged through his front door. Wright said an officer grabbed him by the neck and led him outside on his front lawn.
“He had his knee on my back and I had no idea why they were there,” Wright said.
According to Wright, officers also woke his three young children ages 3, 7, and 11 and put them in a Stockton police patrol car with him. Officers then searched his house.
“They put me in handcuffs in that hot patrol car for six hours, traumatizing my kids,” Wright said.
As it turned out, the person law enforcement was looking for was not there – -Wright’s estranged wife.
The U.S. Department of Education issued the search and called in the S.W.A.T for his wife’s defaulted student loans.
via Education officials break down Stockton man’s door | news10.net.
Update: Newspapers are scrubbing the story and issuing corrections because some details were wrong. It’s now said that this was a criminal investigation, to which Wright’s attorney commented:
Mark Reichel 12 hours ago
I am the attorney for Kenneth Wright and his young children and will be filing suit on their behalf.
Mr. Wright, who is divorced from Mrs. Wright, was at home at 6 a.m. with his 3 children, a daughter aged 3 and two boys just slightly older. Their door was kicked down, Kenneth was dragged wearing only boxer shorts (which ripped during the dragging) to his front lawn and a knee was placed against his neck for 45 minutes. He was not shown a copy of any warrant, nor told much of what was going on. When he saw a patrol car by stretching his neck off the grass, he was pleased to find out it wasn’t some organized crime hit on his family, or a crime gang at the wrong address. His children were then marched downstairs with their hands up at gunpoint. Yes, that happened.
6 hours later, when their tiny house had been thoroughly searched by the 15 SWAT team members, they were told they were looking for Mrs. Wright, who appears to be a suspect for low level student loan fraud. This was news to the Wrights, who would have kindly allowed such a search and would have helped them to find Mrs. Wright, if they could. If they could have the knee off their neck. The 15 armed federal SWAT members were ready just in case Mrs. Wright started throwing phony loan documents at them, some with staples.
Mrs. Wright is not related to Osama Bin Laden. Financial executives who did more harm to this country than the Japanese at Pearl Harbor or Al Qaeda did in New York get charged with stealing billions of dollars and are courteously summoned to appear in court when charged. They are in essence “asked” to appear, on their own, in their best suit, in a limo. She hasn’t been charged, is just under investigation.
Hamilton, Madison, Washington and Jefferson are indeed crying somewhere as they watch what has happened to the people in this country.
Mark Reichel
www.reichelplesser.com
By Allysia Finley (WSJ) If you want to earn big bucks and retire young, you’re better off becoming a California prison guard.
The job might not sound glamorous, but a brochure from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations boasts that it “has been called ‘the greatest entry-level job in California’—and for good reason. Our officers earn a great salary, and a retirement package you just can’t find in private industry. We even pay you to attend our academy.”
That’s right—instead of paying more than $200,000 to attend Harvard, you could earn $3,050 a month at cadet academy.
Training only takes four months, and upon graduating you can look forward to a job with great health, dental and vision benefits and a starting base salary between $45,288 and $65,364. By comparison, Harvard grads can expect to earn $49,897 fresh out of college and $124,759 after 20 years.
via Allysia Finley: California Prison Academy—Better Than a Harvard Degree – WSJ.com.
A high-ranking Rhode Island lawmaker who criticized the Legislature by invoking the image of pot-smoking immigrants is facing drug charges in Connecticut. Police in East Haven, Conn., say East Greenwich Republican Robert Watson, the House Minority Leader, was stopped at a police checkpoint Friday and charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia and driving under the influence.
via High-ranking Rhode Island lawmaker faces Connecticut drug charge – Norwich, CT – Norwich Bulletin.
By Ray Rivera (NY Times) The police on Saturday ratcheted up enforcement on stores and tailor shops that illegally make and sell military and police uniforms after a string of attacks by insurgents dressed as Afghan service members that have cast suspicion on the country’s security forces.
In the Kohan Froshi market, a sprawling open-air bazaar in downtown Kabul, teams of police officers made morning raids through the stalls, confiscating hundreds of uniforms, boots, badges, insignia and other military and police items, said Gen. Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, the police chief of Kabul Province.
In addition to confiscating uniforms and equipment, the police issued stern warnings to shop owners, telling them that if they were caught again, they would face arrest.
“We warned the people not to sell military uniforms and boots,” General Salangi said. Similar crackdowns were under way or about to start in the volatile southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, officials there said.
A thriving trade in military clothing has existed for years. There is ample supply; soldiers and police officers often sell their extra uniforms to supplement their relatively low pay, and deserters also try to cash in. The demand is also high: pieces of contraband uniforms have become something of a fashion statement in a country that has lived with war and violence for decades.
via Afghan Police Seek to Stop Illicit Trade in Uniforms – NYTimes.com.
