Drone Surveillance in Your Backyard? LAPD Has No Plans to Use Unmanned Aircraft ... Yet

Categories: Police

lapd helicopter.JPG
So cops can now fly unmanned aircraft known as drones, which could be used to peek into your backyard and maybe even into your window at night.

So will the LAPD, a pioneer in the use of helicopters for law enforcement, soon be buzzing drones over your house as you smoke your favorite herb and become paranoid with fear?

Not likely, cops tell us:

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John Anthony Borell III, 'Anonymous' Hacker Charged With Police Leaks in Utah, Also Suspected of Posting L.A. Cops' Info, Nude Pics

Categories: Police

john anthony borrell iii.jpg
Borell's alleged Twitter avatar.
Some young hacktivist in Ohio apparently gives a damn about police accountability in far-off Los Angeles County.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the FBI suspects 21-year-old Ohio resident John Anthony Borell III -- who's already facing 10 years in prison and a quarter-million-dollar fine for allegedly hacking into two police websites in Utah, of all places -- of posting emails, personal details and nude pics belonging to over 100 law-enforcement officers in the L.A. area.

The late-February breach was an embarrassing one:

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Are Los Angeles Police Officers Disrespectful To Senior Citizens? Betty Pleasant Thinks So

Categories: Police

Betty Pleasant.jpg
Betty Pleasant
Do Los Angeles police officers need sensitivity training for talking with elderly citizens? According to longtime Los Angeles Wave columnist Betty Pleasant, the answer is a resounding "yes!"

Pleasant, whom we love for her pull-no-punches journalism, complains in a May 2 column that while the LAPD has been "working wonders in their relations with young people, they suck when it comes to dealing with old people."

Fight on, Betty.

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L.A. Sheriff's Gang 'Jump Out Boys' Reportedly Prides Itself on Officer-Involved Shootings

Categories: Police

jump out boys.jpg
Shadier than fiction.
What happens when the very badges chosen to dismantle and disempower the gangs of Los Angeles County form a gang of their own?

It's no secret that the L.A. County Sheriff's Department -- whose reputation with the public has completely disintegrated under Sheriff Lee Baca, in a swirl of scandals including rogue/racist deputies beating inmates to a pulp, prisoners in wheelchairs dragging themselves across the jailhouse floor, and worse -- is a breeding ground for deputy cliques.

Some of the ones who have been outed, over the years:

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LAPD Officers Have Been Harassing Transgender People -- But They Promise to Stop

Categories: Police

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Patrick Range McDonald
Justice for the trannies of WeHo.
The bad news: A new report out of UCLA's Williams Institute reveals "high levels of reported harassment and assault of Latina transgender women" by Los Angeles law enforcement, including the LAPD.

The good news: In a meeting in West Hollywood last night, LAPD officials announced some new measures they'll be taking to avoid transgender maltreatment in the future. Including, most ridiculously...

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Dodgers Opening Day Will be Swarmed by Cops Hoping to Avoid Repeat of Bryan Stow

Categories: Police

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David Nwachuku
Cops are planning to swarm Dodger stadium and nearby Elysian Park on opening day tomorrow.

If you remember last year's opening day, then you know why. Among the violence that broke out was the horrific beating of Giant's fan Bryan Stow, who was put in a coma.

The LAPD today said it was prepared to crack down on alcohol drinking not only in the parking lots of Dodger Stadium but in the nearby parks:

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Kendrec McDade Wasn't the First: 6 More Controversial Police Shootings of Unarmed L.A. Black Men

Categories: Police

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Kendrec McDade, 19, was killed by Pasadena police on March 24.
As the investigation continues into 19-year-old Kendrec McDade's death by police gunfire on March 24, the scenario is looking worse and worse for the two Pasadena police officers who shot McDade.

Last Saturday, at a tense community meeting near the crime scene, Pasadena Police Chief Philip Sanchez urged the public to "wait for the judicial process to find out what ultimately occurred."

But that will take months. Impatience was in the air...

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California Cops Fight Post-Occupy Stigma With Documentary on Officer Fatalities

Categories: Police

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Occupy Wall Street may have begun as a reaction to greedy banksters, but by the end, the narrative had morphed into kids versus cops.

"As a cop you do not want to be that guy with the mask on, with the shield, taking on all these protesters," says Thomas Marchese, a sergeant at the Soledad Police Department in NorCal. Yet the 99 percent came to think of law enforcement as the enemy -- likely because "police are the public face of the government," says Marchese.

The active-duty officer is hoping to alter that perspective...

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Oscar Carrillo, 911 Caller in Kendrec McDade Police Shooting, Arrested for Lying to Cops

Categories: Police

kendrec lavelle mcdade.jpg
Kendrec McDade was killed by two cops last weekend.
Updated at the bottom with AUDIO of the 911 call that led to Kendrec McDade's death. Plus, we talk to his family's attorney about the possible mishandling of this case by the Pasadena PD.

It appears 19-year-old college student and former high-school football star Kendrec McDade really is the next Trayvon Martin.

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Is Kendrec McDade the Next Trayvon Martin? L.A. Civil Rights Leaders Question Pasadena Police Shooting

Categories: Death, Police

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Kendrec McDade via Twitter
The victim, right.
Update: "Oscar Carrillo, 911 Caller in Kendrec McDade Police Shooting, Arrested for Lying to Cops." (Includes audio of the 911 call that killed McDade.)

Originally posted at 9:45 a.m.

While the nation copes with the sickening slaying of 17-year-old black boy Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watchman, we might have our own civil rights battle to fight right here at home.

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Patrick Smith, LAPD Cop, Allegedly Profiled Latinos in West L.A.

Categories: Police

Thumbnail image for creepy mirror glasses Frederic Poirot.JPG
Frederic Poirot
The legend of Driving While Brown allegedly found its true Bad Lieutenant. And he roamed in West L.A., according to an LAPD investigation revealed by the Los Angeles Times.

The paper says that Patrick Smith is his name. And on the steel horse he rode -- allegedly targeting Latinos for traffic tickets.

The department is recommending he be fired:

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Kendrec McDade, Azusa High Football Star, Shot Dead by Pasadena Police After Botched Taco-Truck Robbery

Categories: Death, Police

kendrec lavelle mcdade.jpg
@shi_Nicholle via Twitter
"rest in peace Kendrec L. McDade, we all miss you always & forever."
Updated at the bottom: A weapon has yet to be recovered from the scene. See also: "Is Kendrec McDade the Next Trayvon Martin? L.A. Civil Rights Leaders Question Pasadena Police Shooting."

Originally posted at 10 a.m.

Friends and former teammates of recently graduated Azusa High School football star Kendrec Lavelle McDade, 19, are mourning his death last Saturday night at the hands of Pasadena police.

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Massive LAPD Security Detail at Oscars Included Bomb-Squad Robot, Forklift

Categories: Police, Terrorism

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CBS
The LAPD's ridiculous-looking hazmat robot.
The Academy Awards in the heart of Hollywood make the perfect target for a terrorist. (Or an Occupier.) They're the ultimate symbol of Western culture, celebrating billion-dollar blockbusters and caught up in a media frenzy of nip slips/gown slits.

Of this, the LAPD is well aware. Thus the massive security detail deployed at last night's awards show:

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'Anonymous' Hacks Into L.A. County Police and Sheriff Databases; Posts Contact Info, Nude Pics

Categories: Police

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lapdk9.com
What did the K9s do to deserve this security breach?
Anonymous offshoot CabinCr3w has set its sights back on L.A. law enforcement.

The hackers first targeted the LAPD in the angry aftermath of the massive, allegedly violent raid of the Occupy L.A. encampment downtown.

And they're back for more Internet payback this week, getting revenge on the cops for "injustices they have allowed through ignorance or naivety" and/or "[failing] to protect the safety of those they took an oath to serve."

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L.A. Sheriff's Department Shake-up? Rumors That Sheriff Lee Baca Has Demoted Paul Tanaka, Sketchy Undersheriff

Categories: Police

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David Markland
Is Baca taking desperate measures?
Could L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca finally be turning the Sheriff's Department on its head, in an effort to save whatever scraps of reputation he has left after a year of beaten inmates, ACLU lawsuits, deputies gone rogue and a horrendously botched probe into Miramonte Elementary's alleged sex monster?

Sources familiar with the inside politics of the department tell us that Baca recently overhauled his defamed executive cabinet.

They say that Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, who has been serving as a sort of "shadow leader" to Baca during this PR nightmare...

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LAPD's Abandoned Rampart Station, Center of B.I.G. Scandal, Is Now Blight Capital of the Eastside

Categories: Police

reclaim rampart.jpg
Union de Vecinos via Facebook
The old Rampart station is trashed and overrun with criminals.
A new kind of scandal has overtaken the LAPD's old, boarded-up Rampart Station in Historic Filipinotown.

It's a lot less hip-hop than the last one, but infuriating all the same: "This old station has now been abandoned for at least the past 3 years, and has been a magnet for graffiti, vagrants, and urban decay," writes an Echo Park collective on Facebook event "Reclaim Rampart."

And in the last few months, reports the Eastsider LA, the building has become a hotspot for metal thieves:

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L.A. Sheriff's Creepy New Facial-Recognition Software Matches Surveillance Video With Mug Shot Database

Categories: Police

facial recognition surveillance.jpeg
Be afraid.
The Lancaster station of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department got a little help from Big Brother in cracking its latest robbery spree:

Of three armed robberies in Lancaster over eight days, one of the incidents was caught on surveillance tape. So Sheriff's investigators entered "a clear image of the suspect's face" into "a new law enforcement computerized Facial Recognition Software Program" ...

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Helicopters Buzzing Downtown Part of Joint Military Exercises Supported by LAPD

Categories: Police

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lewisha1990
As if the downtown area isn't already alive with the sound of ghetto birds, the LAPD announced this week that it will be conducting exercises with U.S. Armed Forces.

And those nighttime exercises will include buzzing, ominous helicopters.

So don't trip out, crackhead at Fourth and Hill streets:

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VIDEO: L.A. Sheriff's Deputy Punches Special-Needs Woman on Bus

Categories: Police

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NBC LA
Bigshot.
Updated at the bottom: Sheriff's officials try to justify the use of force.

The L.A. Sheriff's Department is up to its neck right now in allegations of gang-like behavior and beatings by deputies gone rogue.

This cellphone video, shot by Bellflower bus passenger Jermaine Green on Monday night and aired by NBC LA, won't help. It shows two sheriff's deputies climbing onto the bus, confronting a woman pushing a strollerful of pillows (she apparently has special needs) and, uh, socking her in the face.

The cherry on top:

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Insane Superbreed of 'Vapor Wake Detection' Bomb Dog Now Patrolling LAX

Categories: Police, Terrorism

vapor wake detection.jpeg
CBS News
They're here. And they're smarter than you.
Underwear bombers and Lieutenant Brodies of the future, beware.

The LAPD has recruited a new class of canine to help hunt terrorists at LAX, and their nose muscles are as hot and rippling as Schwarzenegger's biceps in the '80s.

Raised and trained on what we imagine to be a thriving puppy boot camp at Auburn University in Alabama, the dogs are a product of precise nature/nurture. By the end of their training, the university claims they can track down a bomb just by getting a whiff of the air somebody walked through...

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