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2 More Nuclear Commanders Fired Amidst Disciplinary Scandals

Originally published on November 7, 2014, at NationofChange.org

Following a recent series of scandals and misconduct, the U.S. Air Force has fired two more nuclear commanders and disciplined a third. Since June of last year, at least 16 senior nuclear officers have been fired, resigned, or had disciplinary action taken against them. As President Obama upgrades and revamps America’s nuclear stockpile, he continues to place these weapons into the hands of officers afflicted by low morale and poor leadership.

On Monday, the U.S. Air Force fired Col. Carl Jones and Lt. Col. Jimmy Brown due to a loss of trust and confidence in their leadership abilities. Second in command of the 90th Missile Wing at Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, Col. Jones was responsible for 150 of the air force’s 450 Minuteman III nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Although Lt. Col. Brown was relieved of command at the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota on the same day, the air force asserts the timing of these firings is merely a coincidence.

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Police Lieutenant Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Drug Conspiracy

Originally published on November 4, 2014, at NationofChange.org

Operating with full oversight of the Arkansas State Police evidence room, Lieutenant Sedrick Reed repeatedly stole large amounts of confiscated heroin and cocaine then sold the drugs to a known felon. As the FBI launched an investigation, agents caught video surveillance of Lieutenant Reed stealing narcotics and delivering them to a drug dealer’s home. After pleading guilty to a drug conspiracy charge, Reed has been sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison and asset forfeiture.

As the Arkansas State Police began to notice heroin and cocaine disappearing from their evidence vault, law enforcement officials notified the FBI and assisted in the investigation of Lieutenant Reed. After acquiring a confidential informant, the FBI arranged a sting to catch Reed in the act. On July 12, 2013, the FBI informant called Lamont Johnson and requested to purchase 9 ounces of cocaine.

Unaware the FBI had a court-authorized Title III wiretap on his phone, Johnson agreed to the deal then called Reed. After Johnson ordered 9 ounces of cocaine from Reed, video surveillance shows Reed entering the evidence room and removing a box of narcotics. Reed took the box into an adjoining room with scales and cut the evidence seal before returning the cocaine. An inspection of the evidence box later revealed over 26 ounces of cocaine had been stolen.

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Corrections Officer Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Inmate During Strip-Search

Originally published on November 1, 2014, at NationofChange.org

A former Missouri correctional officer pleaded guilty in federal court this week to violating the civil rights of an arrestee by assaulting him during a routine strip-search under color of law. Clay County Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Bottorff was caught on surveillance camera repeatedly punching the naked prisoner with a mace canister and threatening to electrocute his genitals. Deputy Bottorff was placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation of the incident and fired a month later.

On December 22, 2008, a man identified in court documents as J.C. had been arrested on a traffic warrant and transported to the Clay County Detention Center in Liberty, Missouri. While being processed by deputies, J.C. admitted to concealing illegal drugs inside his body cavities. The deputies escorted J.C. to a separate room and ordered him to undress.

Demanding J.C. to remove the illicit narcotics, Deputy Bottorff sprayed mace into the inmate’s eyes. Without provocation, Bottorff repeatedly punched J.C. in the face, back, and buttocks with the mace canister still in Bottorff’s fist. According to state records, the weight of the mace canister increased the impact of each punch to the defenseless prisoner.

After being punched at least a dozen times, J.C. eventually produced a small baggie of contraband. He also confessed to concealing more drugs inside his rectum. As Bottorff aimed his stun gun at the inmate’s genitals, J.C. begged, “Don’t tase me! Please, don’t kill me!”

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New Mexico Deputy Charged with Murdering Fellow Deputy

Originally published on October 30, 2014, at NationofChange.org

A Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Deputy has been charged with murder after gunning down his colleague at a hotel in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Deputy Jeremy Martin had been fleeing towards the elevator when Deputy Tai Chan shot him multiple times in the back and arm. Las Cruces Police officers found Martin in the hotel lobby and transported him to MountainView Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

After transporting a prisoner to a detention facility in Safford, Arizona, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies Martin and Chan stopped in Las Cruces and booked room 711 at Hotel Encanto around 4pm on Monday. According to Chan’s friend, Joshua Sexauer, the off-duty deputies were already drinking when he picked them up from the hotel. They went to three different bars including Dublin’s Street Pub where the deputies got into a heated argument and the bartender had to physically separate them.

Sexauer left the bar and later received a phone call from Chan’s girlfriend, Leah Tafoya. At 12:31am, Tafoya asked Sexauer to check on Chan. She had just been on the phone with Chan when she heard someone yelling, “Please don’t, please don’t!”

Then she heard gunshots.

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CHP Officers Caught Stealing Nude Photos of Female Suspects

Originally published on October 29, 2014, at NationofChange.org

A California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer has admitted to stealing nude photos from the cell phones of several women that he arrested and shared the pictures with at least two other officers. Accessing their cell phones while the women were in police custody, CHP Officer Sean Harrington forwarded the explicit photos to his phone before texting them to his colleagues. Instead of serving and protecting, law enforcement authorities have repeatedly been caught abusing their powers for their own amusement.

Just past midnight on August 29, Officer Harrington and his partner pulled over a 23-year-old San Ramon woman for making an unsafe lane change. After failing a field sobriety test, she was detained on suspicion of driving under the influence with a blood alcohol content of .29, over three times the legal limit. Harrington brought the woman to the county jail in Martinez where she asked the officer to retrieve a phone number from her contact list. After she gave Harrington her cell password, he wrote the phone number down on a piece of paper and handed it to her. Surveillance video corroborates these events.

While off-camera, Harrington illegally delved into her photos without a search warrant. He forwarded six intimate photos of the suspect to his cell phone before deleting the record of actions from her iPhone. Unbeknownst to Harrington, her iPad was synced to her phone via iCloud and kept a separate record of his transgressions. After the suspect was released, she learned her photos had been forwarded to an unknown phone number with a 707 area code while she was in custody. She researched the number and discovered it belonged to her arresting officer.

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23 Egyptian Activists Sentenced to Three Years in Prison for Protesting

Originally published on October 27, 2014, at NationofChange.org

An Egyptian court sentenced 23 young activists to three years in prison for protesting without a government permit on Sunday. Following the political turbulence of the Arab Spring and the downfall of President Morsi, Egypt has been aggressively prosecuting anyone caught practicing free speech or peaceful assembly in an attempt to silence dissent. Although the U.S. State Department has publicly condemned the court’s decision, President Obama continues to fund the new Egyptian government and its military.

On June 21, activists marched towards the presidential palace in Cairo protesting against Egypt’s draconian anti-protest law and the repeated incarceration of political blogger, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, along with others. As they marched to the palace, the activists were attacked by several groups of men wearing civilian clothes. As security forces dispersed the crowd, they arrested 24 young activists including a child named Islam Tawfik Mohamed Hassan who faces trial in a juvenile court according to Amnesty International.

While buying water from a kiosk, Yara Sallam and her cousin were arrested along with the protesters. According to witnesses, Sallam and her cousin had not been participating in the demonstration. The following day, security forces released Sallam’s cousin, but kept Sallam in custody after discovering her occupation as a lawyer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. She has been convicted along with the protesters and sentenced to three years in prison. Amnesty International considers Sallam a prisoner of conscience who must be released immediately.

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Blackwater Operatives Found Guilty of Committing Iraqi Massacre

Originally published on October 24, 2014, at NationofChange.org

Four former Blackwater USA contractors have been convicted of murdering 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians and wounding 18 others in the 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad. The defendants falsely claimed they had been under attack when the shooting occurred, but surviving witnesses and fellow Blackwater operatives testified against them in federal court. After lying under oath to Congress, Blackwater’s founder and former CEO Erik Prince later fled to Abu Dhabi to elude Justice Department investigations.

On September 16, 2007, a Blackwater convoy codenamed Raven 23 disobeyed orders from US Embassy officials to remain in the Green Zone and instead established a blockade at Nisour Square. While driving his mother to an appointment, Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia’y stopped his white Kia sedan at the checkpoint and waited for the Blackwater mercenaries to let them pass. Hiding inside the convoy’s command vehicle, Nicholas Slatten aimed his SR-25 sniper rifle through a gun portal and murdered Ahmed.

As Ahmed’s head exploded, his car slipped into neutral and slowly began to approach the Blackwater convoy. While attempting to stop the car, Iraqi police officer Ali Khalaf Salman raised his left arm signaling the shooters to stop firing. Inside the sedan, Ahmed’s mother, Mahassin Mohssen Kadhum Al-Khazali, clutched his bleeding head screaming, “My son! My son! Help me, help me!”

A turret gunner, Jeremy Ridgeway, opened fire killing Ahmed’s mother. Another Blackwater shooter launched an M-203 grenade that caused the sedan to erupt into flames. Unleashing sniper fire, machine guns, and grenade launchers, the Blackwater convoy murdered ten unarmed men, two women, and two boys, ages 9 and 11. At least 18 victims were wounded. The only damage inflicted upon the convoy’s command vehicle came from shrapnel by an American grenade fired at close range by a Blackwater operative.

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Less Than 4% of Pakistanis Killed by CIA Drone Strikes Named as al-Qaeda Members

Originally published on October 23, 2014, at NationofChange.org

Although the U.S. government claims only confirmed terrorists at the highest level are being targeted in drone strikes, the CIA does not know the names or identities of the majority of people the agency has killed in Pakistan since June 2004. After a decade of drone strikes in Pakistan, less than 4% of the victims have been identified as named members of al-Qaeda. Since the inception of the drone program, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have unconstitutionally murdered at least four American citizens.

According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the CIA has launched 400 drone strikes in Pakistan killing at least 2,379 people. Only 704 of these drone strike victims have been identified. 295 have been classified as militants belonging to either the Afghan Taliban or the Pakistani Taliban, while only 84 have been positively identified as members of al-Qaeda.

At least 168 Pakistani children have died in drone strikes, but only 99 have been identified by name. Sixty-seven of these children were executed in a drone strike on a madrassa in October 2006 that left 81 civilians dead.

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Vice Detective Caught Obstructing Justice for French Prostitute

Originally published on October 20, 2014, at NationofChange.org

A former detective from the Dallas Police Department’s Vice Unit was convicted on three counts of obstruction of official proceedings and one count of obstruction of the due administration of justice for exchanging sex for protection with a French prostitute. Although the vice detective claimed he was simply protecting a confidential informant, the unidentified prostitute testified against him in court confirming she had traded sexual favors for sensitive information about the DPD Vice Unit’s investigations and prostitution raids.

In early 2009, the DPD Vice Unit raided an adult entertainment establishment in Texas. During that raid, vice detective Jose Luis Bedoy met a French prostitute working for that establishment. Bedoy assisted her later when she attempted to reclaim property seized during the raid. According to the prosecution, Bedoy targeted the prostitute because she was in the U.S. illegally and had no family in the area.

From 2009 to 2013, the French prostitute engaged in a sexual relationship with Bedoy and fondled him during massages in exchange for police protection and sensitive information about active vice investigations. During their encounters, Bedoy advised her to work at massage parlors that were not under investigation and taught her how to screen her clients to avoid arrest.

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City Employees Caught Stealing Over $300,000 from Parking Meters

Originally published on October 19, 2014, at NationofChange.org

Four employees from Buffalo’s Department of Parking Enforcement have been convicted of stealing over $300,000 in coins from the city’s parking meters over the course of almost a decade. The FBI began investigating the city employees after Parking Commissioner Kevin Helfer noticed Buffalo’s new computerized pay stations were collecting nearly ten times the amount of money brought in from the old quarter-fed parking meters. The employees have been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay back all of the money that prosecutors were able to prove they stole.

In 2011, Parking Commissioner Helfer realized the city’s new computerized stations were bringing in roughly $100,000 per month, while the older meters were only collecting $15,000 to $20,000 per month. About 128 computerized stations covering approximately 1,300 parking spots collected $100,000 each month, while roughly 1,200 older parking meters only brought in up to $20,000 per month.

On August 16, 2011, Buffalo Police discovered over $1,300 in coins hidden inside Franklin Lopez’s work vehicle. Employed part time as a coin collector for Buffalo’s Department of Parking Enforcement between 2002 and 2011, Lopez was responsible for collecting money deposited into parking meters. Instead of depositing the coins into the city treasury, Lopez made numerous cash deposits and cash payments for various items. Between November 2002 and August 2011, Lopez stole over $69,000 from Buffalo’s parking meters. On Thursday, Lopez was sentenced to 12 months in prison and ordered to pay $69,000 in restitution.

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