What Is A ‘Sobriety Test’ Like?

Crossing the traffic lanes, not obeying traffic signs, and swerving in the road are some of the reasons you can get pulled over for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), according to the Your Erie website.

So what happens when the officer tells you to step behind your vehicle to perform a field sobriety test?

You’ll be asked to follow the tip of a pen with your eyes, put through a heel to toe walk, and then perform a balance test, such as standing on one foot.

You are also given a breathalyzer test to determine how much alcohol is in your system, writes Your Erie.

Police say their reasons for every one of these tests to insure you’re OK to continue driving, or to arrest you for drunk driving.

Police can also use these checks for drugs in your system.

What Is #LoveThePolice?

Russell Brand

Russell Brand discusses an “anti-austerity” (anti-budget-cut) protest that took place in London recently.

Brand also discusses the #LoveThePolice campaign. Can you protest for the rights of workers and also protest on behalf of the police?

Police Get Into Scuffle With Man Holding Daughter

TYT Network

A father in the Philadelphia area was “busted” by police after he reportedly didn’t pay a subway fare for his young daughter, according to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) Police.

The altercation between him and police is under scrutiny, writes NBC Philadelphia.

SEPTA Police Chief Thomas Nestel said Ellis Smith didn’t pay the $2.25 payment while entering the westbound tracks of SEPTA’s Market-Frankford El at the Margaret-Orthodox station Thursday afternoon. A cashier notified police which dispatched an officer to investigate.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/SEPTA-Talks-About-Caught-on-Video-Arrest-That-Went-Viral-310139281.html#ixzz3eg24N3ep

http://blacktimetravel.com/video-man-brutally-arrested-while-holding-his-infant-daughter-for-not-paying-her-train-fare/

Unarmed Man Shot In Baltimore Suburb

Baltimore County police officers shot and killed an unarmed man in Baltimore suburb of Owings Mills early Thursday, writes the Baltimore Sun. The Herald-Standard claimed that the man was going to commit suicide.

The police were responding to a report of domestic violence at a home they had visited more than a dozen times over the past three years.

Spencer Lee McCain, 41, died about 8 a.m. at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, police said.

The Herald-Standard:

“An unarmed black man killed by Baltimore County police told his girlfriend’s mother that he was going to commit suicide as officers were on their way to his home after reports of domestic violence, the mother said Thursday.”

Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson said officers believed McCain was armed. However, they did not find a weapon on him, writes the Baltimore Sun.

Police received a 911 call about a possible domestic disturbance at the condominium in the 3000 block of Hunting Ridge Drive in Owings Mills shortly after 1 a.m., Johnson said. He said a 10-year-old child who lived at the home called a grandmother, who dialed 911.

He said the first officer to arrive knew of a history of domestic violence calls at the home. Since 2012, police said, officers responded to 911 calls for the address 17 times, including several reports of fighting.

(Updated title)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-co-police-involved-shooting-20150625-story.html

http://www.heraldstandard.com/united_states_ap/baltimore-co-police-kill-unarmed-man-after-suicide-threat/article_fe7d9e21-b096-5250-b94f-2cd1211da33d.html

Cincinnati Man Set ‘Trap’ For Police: Suicide By Cop?

WCPO.com

Trepierre Hummons called 911 then waited with a gun for police to arrive, according to Cincinnati police. When they did, he shot and killed 48-year-old Officer Sonny Kim, a husband and father of three, police said.

Then he opened fire on two more officers, said Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffery Blackwell.

Not long before, he had made a Facebook post that seemed to indicate a plan to commit suicide by cop, according to CNN.

The police, while armed, didn’t know what they’d walked into. When when the 21-year-old Hummons called the emergency operator, he didn’t hint at his plan.

Earlier, he had pretended to be a concerned witness who’d seen a man acting erratically with a gun, according to 911 and dispatch tapes released by police.  Then he gave a description of himself in a shaky voice. “Very early 20s … about like 5 (foot) 6 … he’s a little thick fellow.”

The operator took down his name and number.  Hummons thanked her. The dispatcher notified a policeman in the area.

Hummons dialed 911 again to make sure police were on their way, and he repeated his location.

The dispatcher notified the policeman again. “Copy, I’m in the area,” the officer answered her before bursting into shouts: “Shots fired! Shots fired!”

Hummons wounded Kim multiple times in spite of the protective vest he wore, the police chief said. And when a probation officer arrived moments later, Hummons shot at him, too.

At some point, Hummons’ mother came out to the street.

“The suspect then returned to Police Officer Kim, who was lying wounded on the street and began to fight with him in an effort to take the officer’s firearm,” Police Chief Blackwell said.

Kim struggled as he bled, but couldn’t hang on to his weapon. A third officer, Tom Sandmann, arrived, and Hummons used Kim’s gun to fire at him. But Sandmann returned fire and wounded Hummons.

Both Hummons and Kim later died at a hospital, according to CNN.

Take The Money And Run?

A 15-year-old boy stole a handgun and money from a relative’s Palm Bay, Florida home Sunday before he and his 16-year-old girlfriend headed north on Interstate 95 to the boy’s home state, according to deputies.

The Orlando Sentinel states that Zane Terryn and his 16-year-old girlfriend wanted to die together in Ohio, authorities claimed.

A state trooper’s inquiry about the teenagers’ broken headlight at a Pilot Travel Center in Cocoa about 9:45 p.m. halted their plan when Terryn started shooting at the trooper.

Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Channing Taylor was shot in the shoulder and he then fired back at Terryn, which killed him.

Terryn’s girlfriend tried to escape in her vehicle but soon struck a boat that was being pulled by a pickup on State Road 520.

She was charged with attempted murder of a law-enforcement officer and second-degree murder.

Are the charges appropriate?

The attempted-murder charge is from the trooper’s injury, authorities said.  She did not pull the trigger, but authorities say she played a “key role” in the shooting.

“[S]he provided access to the firearm. It was in her truck [that] they traveled in,” said Florida Highway Patrol Major Tod Goodyear, “and she fled the scene after the event.”

The murder charge is from her boyfriend’s death.  She did not shoot her boyfriend.  However, “(s)ince a person died while she and the deceased suspect were in the commission of a felony crime, she was charged with felony murder,” Goodyear said.

She is being held without bond.

So, it seems that an unarmed 16-year-old girl is being charged for the murder of her boyfriend and the attempted murder of a police officer.

Officer Taylor is recovering from the shoulder wound, which was treated at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne.  He has since been released from the hospital.  He is on paid administrative leave, said Major Goodyear.

“Lieutenant Taylor is currently on paid administrative leave and is recuperating from his injuries, which is the normal practice in cases of this nature,” Goodyear wrote in a statement Monday.

Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) claims that the teens were traveling to Ohio – Terryn’s home state – to commit suicide.

The teens had stopped at the gas station to get food. Officer Taylor noticed the broken headlight and walked over to the teens to talk about the “safety equipment problem,” the release said.

While Taylor was talking to the girlfriend, who was in the driver’s seat, “Terryn, who was the passenger in the vehicle, produced a firearm and began shooting at the trooper,” Goodyear said.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is looking into the use of force with a parallel but independent investigation.

Taylor began his career as a trooper in 1994.  He was promoted to lieutenant in 2007 and is supervisor of traffic homicide for the Brevard district.

It’s unclear whom Terryn lived with in Palm Bay.

The girlfriend is also from the same city in Brevard County.

According to The Orlando Sentinel, anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Crimeline at 800-423-8477 as the investigations continue.

(Updated article)

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2015/06/15/investigators-teen-shooter-driver-made-suicide-pact/71258284/

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-zane-terryn-dead-trooper-shooting-20150615-story.html

http://www.floridatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2015/06/15/photos-trooper-involved-shooting-near-cocoa/71237224/

Can A Person Get Arrested For Masturbating In Their Own Car?

At least one guy did.

Police in Mandeville, Louisiana, arrested a local man Monday, June 15th, for allegedly masturbating in his car in public.

The incident occurred in the Northlake Shopping Center, police said.

Just after 6:30 p.m. – still in daylight hours – police received a call concerning public obscenity in the parking lot, located in the 1800 block of North Causeway Approach, writes nola.com.

Officers allegedly found the man there in his charcoal gray 2006 Nissan Altima, according to a Mandeville Police report.

When officers arrived, the report said, they found the man “seated in the vehicle and still actively ‘perpetrating his crime,'” according to the press release.

The man was arrested and charged with one count of public obscenity. The charge carries a fine of between $1,000 and $2,000, and jail time of between six months and three years, police said.

The man was booked into the St. Tammany Parish jail, according to police.

(Updated article)

http://www.kplctv.com/story/29331717/police-officer-catches-man-in-the-act-in-north-shore-parking-lot

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/06/caught_in_the_act_mandeville_p.html

Was The McKinney ‘Barrel Roll’ Necessary?

Some articles are out that discuss the importance (or silliness?) of the McKinney cop’s “barrel roll” and how it was necessary.

The point being made is that this kind of behavior was the latest example of “overbearing police tactics meted out in an unwarranted setting,” according to attn.com.

“But the barrel roll provided a glimpse into a particular mindset of policing using unnecessary tactics, and informed with an action-movie zeal,” writes attn.com.

Be sure to check out hilarious memes at hashtag #barrelroll on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/barrelroll

(Updated article)

More:

http://www.attn.com/stories/1956/barrel-roll-policing-mckinney?utm_source=huffpostpolitics&utm_medium=onsitepost&utm_campaign=syndication

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/12/heres-why-the-mckinney-co_n_7569882.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

Denton Record-Chronicle: Officer In McKinney Resigns

According to the Denton Record-Chronicle, the policeman on duty whose aggressive response at an unruly teenage pool party ignited a national controversy resigned on Tuesday, leaving critics relieved and supporters disappointed.

The Record-Chronicle states that McKinney police Corporal David Eric Casebolt is a 10-year veteran of the police department.

He voluntarily stepped down while an internal police investigation was going on and during heightened public pressure, including death threats.

The officer’s terse, “two-word” resignation did not include an apology or acknowledgment of wrongdoing, said McKinney Police Chief Greg Conley.  On Tuesday, Conley condemned Casebolt’s actions as “indefensible” and “out of control.”

The chief distanced himself from his former employee on the day his department dropped charges against the one person arrested at the scene, which signaled a swift shift in the police’s handling of the encounter recorded on video that went viral.

According to the Dallas Morning News, there were two competing narratives about the incident at the pool – either racist white residents of Craig Ranch and McKinney police harassed neighborhood black kids, or law officers safely dispersed a loud, out-of-control mob of interloping teenagers.

Those were the competing narratives circulating Monday about an incident that has become a national flashpoint about racism and police tactics.

In a strange turn of events, some white Craig Ranch residents said they were so frightened about the possible reaction that they were packing up and leaving their homes temporarily.

(Updated article)

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20150609-mckinney-officer-in-video-resigns.ece?ssimg=2328358#ssStory2328360

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/mckinney/headlines/20150608-dueling-views-of-mckinney-melee-fault-intruding-teens-racist-adults-police-officer.ece

Police Reportedly Shoot, Kill Oklahoma Man After Saving Him

There is a questionable story coming out of Oklahoma having to do with the recent floods there.  An Oklahoma state trooper fatally shot a man after he and another man were rescued from floodwaters, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.  The two men were brothers.

Two state troopers responded to a report of a stranded vehicle in Okmulgee County, OK, about 20 miles south of Tulsa, at about 9:30 p.m. Friday, writes The Huffington Post.  The two policemen found the two men trying to remove a vehicle from a roadway over which water was rising and moving quickly, according to Captain Paul Timmons.

“They were trying to get them to come out of the water. They were worried about them getting swept away,” Timmons said.  “(The men), for whatever reason, were just really upset about having to leave the vehicle there.”

The man who was shot was 35-year-old Nehemiah Fischer, according to Timmons.  They arrested the other man, Fischer’s older brother, Brandon, who was uninjured.

At least one man – Nehemiah Fischer – reportedly attacked a trooper after reaching dry land and was shot and killed, according to The Huffington Post.  It wasn’t immediately known how many shots were fired or whether one or both state troopers did the shooting.

“It’s not real clear how it all transpired,” according to Timmons.  The two men were reportedly brothers.

Timmons said a weapon was recovered from one of the suspects, but it wasn’t immediately known which man had the weapon or whether shots were fired at the troopers.

The second man was arrested for assault and public intoxication, Timmons said.

The shooting is under investigation.

Timmons said Nehemiah Fischer, 35, was armed, according to WHNT News.

Fox 23 local network said that Nehemiah was an assistant pastor at Faith Bible Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The highway patrol’s practice is to place any patrolman involved in a fatal shooting on administrative leave. Timmons couldn’t confirm whether that had been done yet for the two troopers in this case, states WHNT News.

However, The Huffington Post claims that neither trooper was injured, and neither had been placed on leave as of Saturday afternoon.

(Updated article)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/30/troopers-kill-oklahoma-ma_n_7476790.html

http://www.people.com/article/oklahoma-state-troopers-fatally-shoot-man-rescue-flooding

http://whnt.com/2015/05/31/trooper-in-oklahoma-fatally-shoots-man-during-high-water-response/