Thursday, December 15, 2016

Makes you wonder what the clowns running DHS are up to,

and trying to hide, doesn't it?
The Georgia Secretary of State's Office now confirms 10 separate cyberattacks on its network were all traced back to U.S. Department of Homeland Security addresses

In an exclusive interview, a visibly frustrated Secretary of State Brian Kemp confirmed the attacks of different levels on his agency's network over the last 10 months. He says they all traced back to DHS internet provider addresses.
...
Last week, the DHS confirmed the large Nov. 15 attack traced back to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection internet gateway. But Kemp says the DHS’ story about its source keeps changing.

"First it was an employee in Corpus Christi, and now it's a contractor in Georgia,” Kemp said.

Unsatisfied with the response he got from DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson this week, Kemp fired off a letter Wednesday to loop in President-elect Donald Trump.


This is going to make things interesting:
Ray Rosas is a free man tonight after a jury of his peers found him not guilty of shooting three Corpus Christi police officers on February 19, 2015. On that day, early in the morning, CCPD executed a no-knock search warrant, forcing entry into the home without first knocking and announcing they were the police. 

A flash bang grenade was fired into Rosas’ bedroom, reportedly stunning the 47-year-old, who then opened fire on the intruders. Three officers were wounded; officers Steven Ruebelmann, Steven Brown, and Andrew Jordan. Police were looking for drugs and Rosas’ nephew, who they suspected to be a dealer. However, the unnamed nephew was not home at the time of the raid. 

Rosas spent nearly 2 years in jail awaiting trial, which concluded Tuesday with a Nueces County jury finding him not guilty. Rosas’ defense maintained, based on statements he made immediately following the shooting and later in jail that he did not know the men breaking into his home were police officers and there was no way he could’ve known, having been disoriented by the flash-bang stun grenade. “The case is so easy, this is a self-defense case,” said Rosas’ lawyer in closing arguments.
I cannot find the case this reminds me of a few years ago, officers throw a flash-bang into a home, charged in, and got shot by a guy thinking he was being robbed.  The prosecutor claimed "He should have known they were police!", which was answered by
"Why did they throw in the grenade?"
"It's to disorient the subject and reduce resistance."
"So you deliberately used something you knew would disorient them, but they're supposed to know it's the cops?"
Which resulted in the case being thrown out.

Keep using these idiot 'dynamic-entry raids' when they're not needed, people are going to keep getting hurt, and some are going to die.  Without need.  Unless you consider "We want to wear our ninja suits, throw grenades and kick doors" to be 'need'.


Speaking of LE, here's something on an ongoing problem I've yelled about before:
A small town in Indiana witnessed its entire police force resign recently amid accusations that council officials were making odd demands of dubious legality. 

The officers, who submitted their resignations Monday, hold Bunker Hill Town Council responsible, alleging that the city council asked cops to do things like background checks on local rivals, reports Fox 59.
Here you have officers who obeyed the law, and politicians threatening them for doing so.  Back when I worked in a LE field, we'd get calls about this regularly: the city manager, or mayor, or some agency official, calling the PD or SO and demanding they run people through the system, and when told "We can't do that", getting nasty.*  Often telling them "If they don't like it have them call us, and we'll tell them.  And have the audit people start an investigation if need be" would take care of it, other times they just tried again.

This crap is one reason I throw fits when someone starts another "We need a new database of 'X', because public safety."  Because I KNOW it'll be abused.




*Some officers get nasty with the dispatcher when they tried to run someone through the Interstate Identification Index without legal reason: "I have the badge, I say I need this, so do it!"  Which is also illegal as hell, but a lot of people think 'badge' means "I can do anything I want.  Because 'officer'."

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