Man Hides From Cops in Vat of Poo

Don't do the crime if you can't do the slime.

Don't do it.

In Noble County, Indiana, Thomas Hovis Jr. decided that concealing himself in a vat of dog dukey was his best shot at freedom. Wanted on warrants that included methamphetamine and weapons charges, Hovis eluded a SWAT team and spent nearly an hour in the poop pit.

What's more, when pulled from the dog pile, Hovis resisted and was summarily stunned by a Taser before being taken into custody. Suffering from crap-induced hypothermia, Hovis was trembling so much that he required medical treatment. No word on whether that included a heartworm biscuit and testing for Parvo.

Hiding in a liquid manure pit may not seem like a good idea for everyone, which is probably as it should be. For Hovis, however, being in deep shit is all part of the game.

Police Sniff Out Meth Suspect's Manure Hideout

The Secret Police of Northern Virginia

I know this sort of thing happens in banana republics and eastern bloc countries, but how in the world can secretive police agencies be allowed to exist in the good old USA?

Radley Balko writes at Reason about three Northern Virginia police departments - Fairfax County, Arlington, and Alexandria - that deny open records request by default and operate is such an opaque manner that you'd think they were taking lessons from the KGB.

Balko writes:

Michael Pope, a reporter who covers Northern Virginia for the Connection Newspapers chain and for the Washington, D.C., NPR affiliate WAMU, filed a series of open records requests with the Faifax Police Department related to the Masters shooting. All were denied. Last month, Pope asked Fairfax County Police Public Information Officer Mary Ann Jennings why her department won't at least release the incident report on Master's death, given concerns raised about the shooting. "Let us hear that concern," Jennings shot back. "We are not hearing it from anybody except the media, except individual reporters."

That's an astounding answer. "Except the media?" That's exactly who you would expect to file most open records requests. When asked why her department won't even release even the name of the officer who shot Masters, Jennings got more obtuse. "What does the name of an officer give the public in terms of information and disclosure?" Jennings asked in reply, presumably rhetorically. "I'd be curious to know why they want the name of an officer."

Cover-ups by law enforcement agencies are nothing new. Neither are officers who abuse their sworn duties, lie under oath, or otherwise besmirch the badge. What's amazing is the utter dearth of concern demonstrated by elected officials within the three jurisdictions.

Don't look to elected officials to correct any of this, either. "I am in the corner of trusting our police department," Arlington County Board member Barbara Favola told Pope. "If they push back I am not going to override them, and I don’t think I could get three votes on the board to override them either."

Really? Then not only is there a transparency problem, but there's an oversight problem too. How dare officials so blatantly disregard public requests for information when it's common (and expected) practice elsewhere?

Balko:

And then there's Alexandria Commonwealth Attorney Randolph Sengel, who fired off an indignant letter to the editor in response to Pope's article. Calling Pope's well-reported piece a "rant" that was "thinly disguised as a news story," Sengel wrote that "Law enforcement investigations and prosecutions are not carried out for the primary purpose of providing fodder for his paper." Mocking the media's role as a watchdog for government officials, Sengel added, "The sacred 'right of the public to know' is still (barely) governed by standards of reasonableness and civility," as if those two adjectives were incompatible with a journalist inquiring about the details of a govenrment agent's fatal shooting of an unarmed man.

The entire column is worth a read. Think it can't happen in America?

Think again.

Stupid Vandalism Tricks

Would-be vandals, here's a tip: Don't vandalize a building where more than 100 police officers are attending a law enforcement training class.

At least 40 of them will chase your ass down the street.

Bad Cops, Bad Cops, Watcha Gonna Do?

With rapid advances in video technology, the citizenry has become well-armed with recording devices of all shapes, sizes, and capabilities.

A side benefit is that many folks have turned into civic videographers, capturing behaviors of all types in digital format that are then shared around the world at the speed of light. The YouTube generation is here, and it seems like someone is always watching.

No group is more perturbed by this shift in power than law enforcement. Previously, accusations of improper conduct, excessive force, and targeted enforcement were anecdotal at best, because police department management, government officials, and the courts were loathe to take the word of a witness (or twelve) over those sworn to uphold the law as they beat your brains out with a stick.

Video cameras have begun to swing the pendulum in the other direction. From Rodney King to "Don't tase me, bro!", to cops knocking dudes off of bikes then arresting them after lying on the paperwork, to uniformed thugs chortling while smashing heads during unsanctioned, highly-questionable raids at gay bars, undeniable evidence of abuses of power by a growing number of officers is piling up, and justice, while not always served, is frequently on display.

To that end, Radley Balko does a fine job of aggregating examples of the dearth of professionalism among law enforcement types in his blog, The Agitator. If you've any doubt that these abusive practices are both common and widespread, Radley will convince you beyond a reasonable doubt.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Those Hacking Aussies

Since good, old fashioned police work doesn't seem to work very well down under, Australian police are asking for permission to hack into computers in their quest for evidence.

There are several troubling aspects of this proposal. It's good that they would still need a warrant, although as we've seen from the FBI here in the states, that doesn't always mean law enforcement has been above-board or followed all of the rules.

If a judge gave their approval, police could hack in, monitor for up to seven straight days, and not have to tell the owners for (conceivably) up to three years. Where's the due process in that?

Most software and security vendors are on record as opposing these kinds of efforts, but you can almost read the writing on the wall - eventually, some enthusiastic group of lawmakers will get involved and enact legislation requiring vendors to build in rootkits and back doors for use by investigative agencies.