NY bill proposed to charge you with a felony for 'annoying' a NYPD cop - the police state gets bigger

NY Senate passes Bill that would make annoying a cop a felony
Bill would basically allow police to arrest based on their own subjective impulses

by Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
June 6, 2013

Lawmakers in New York may have jumped the shark with their latest police protection bill.
New York Senate Bill 2402 would effectively make it a class E felony to “annoy” so-called peace officers.

The bill, in part, reads:

      A PERSON IS GUILTY OF AGGRAVATED HARASSMENT OF A POLICE OFFICER OR    
      PEACE OFFICER WHEN, WITH THE INTENT TO HARASS, ANNOY, THREATEN OR 
      ALARM A PERSON WHOM HE OR SHE KNOWS OR REASONABLY SHOULD KNOW 
      TO BE A POLICE OFFICER OR PEACE OFFICER ENGAGED IN THE COURSE OF 
      PERFORMING HIS OR HER OFFICIAL DUTIES, HE OR SHE STRIKES, SHOVES, KICKS 
      OR OTHERWISE SUBJECTS SUCH PERSON TO PHYSICAL CONTACT.

According to WIVB, Sen. Joe Griffo, one of the original sponsors of the bill, defended it and the all-important police state arguing, “Police officers who risk their lives every day in our cities and on our highways deserve every possible protection, and those who treat them with disrespect, harass them and create situations that can lead to injuries deserve to pay a price for their actions.”

Besides the otherwise lame attempt to justify a bill that in essence gives police free rein to claim physical annoyance, there is no actual explanation given for creating such a bill.

If signed into law, offenders would be subjected to the same penalties as other class E felonies like “placing a false bomb or hazardous substance” in a public place, and “riot in the first degree.” This is the lowest felony charge in New York, but can still carry a penalty of up to 4 years imprisonment, depending on the judge’s decision.

Given the fact that police almost universally disapprove of those who dare film them, little effort is needed to imagine them citing the bill’s content as justification for their arrest of citizen journalists like We Are Change’s Luke Rudkowski, who routinely gets into confrontations with police, or our own intrepid Infowars reporter Dan Bidondi, who it could be argued “harassed” authorities at the Boston Marathon press conferences when they had to physically touch him.

In addition, the bill virtually welcomes and protects police who would provoke citizens into any kind of spat, as, under the vague language of the bill, any physical “harassment” can be deemed unlawful.

RT also noted how questionable laws were increasingly being cited by police in their own defense, noting the example of New York homeowner Emily Good, who was arrested by police in Rochester “while standing in her yard and videotaping police officers who were performing a traffic stop in front of her house.”

“When Good insisted on her right to stand in her yard, she was arrested, handcuffed, and taken away in a police car. She was later charged with obstructing governmental administration.” Police told Good they didn’t feel safe with her standing behind them recording.

Recently we also witnessed a 14-year-old in Florida get slammed to the ground and put in a choke hold for what amounted to little more than throwing police “dehumanizing stares.”

In essence, the bill, if passed, would allow police to arrest according to their own subjective impulses.

Traitors in our midst? NYPD pays to bait Muslims into extremism

NYPD paid teenage informant THOUSANDS to 'bait' Muslims into talking about terrorism and jihads

• Police enticed Shamiur Rahman, 19, to help spy on Muslims for them
• He collected pictures of people at rallies, Muslim community talks, and interior shots of mosques
• Paid him up to $1,000-per-month
• NYPD denies widespread spying but CIA allegedly helped set program up

By ASSOCIATED PRESS/DAILYMAIL

October 23, 2012

A paid informant for the New York Police Department's intelligence unit was under orders to 'bait' Muslims into saying incriminating things as he lived a double life.

Shamuir Rahman (left) attended a Muslim
student group's talk, where he posed
for a photo with prominent but controversial
New York imam Siraj Wahhaj (right)

Shamiur Rahman, a 19-year-old American of Bengali descent, was paid up to $1,000 per month for snapping pictures inside mosques and collecting the names of innocent people attending study groups on Islam, he told The Associated Press.

He now denounces his work as an informant, saying police told him to embrace a strategy called 'create and capture.'

The strategy had him create a conversation about jihad or terrorism, then capturing the response to send to the NYPD.

In addition to the monthly payments, Rahman also earned goodwill from the police after a string of minor marijuana arrests.

'We need you to pretend to be one of them,' Rahman recalled the police telling him. 'It's street theater.'

Rahman, who said he plans to move to the Caribbean, said he now believes his work as an informant against Muslims in New York was 'detrimental to the Constitution.'

After he disclosed to friends details about his work for the police — and after he told the police that he had been contacted by the AP — he stopped receiving text messages from his NYPD handler, 'Steve,' and his handler's NYPD phone number was disconnected.

Rahman's account shows how the NYPD unleashed informants on Muslim neighborhoods, often without specific targets or criminal leads. Much of what Rahman said represents a tactic the NYPD has denied using.

Informants like Rahman are a central component of the NYPD's wide-ranging programs to monitor life in Muslim neighborhoods since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Police officers have eavesdropped inside Muslim businesses, trained video cameras on mosques and collected license plates of worshippers. Informants who trawl the mosques — known informally as 'mosque crawlers' — tell police what the imam says at sermons and provide police lists of attendees, even when there's no evidence they committed a crime.
The programs were built with unprecedented help from the CIA.


Secrets: In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the NYPD activated and enlisted informants who could attend Muslim community events and mosques without being noticed

Police recruited Rahman in late January, after his third arrest on misdemeanor drug charges, which Rahman believed would lead to serious legal consequences.

An NYPD plainclothes officer approached him in a Queens jail and asked whether he wanted to turn his life around: the next month, Rahman said, he was on the NYPD's payroll.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not immediately return a message seeking comment about Tuesday. He has denied widespread NYPD spying, saying police only follow leads.
Rahman said he received little training and spied on 'everything and anyone.' He took pictures inside the many mosques he visited and eavesdropped on imams.

By his own measure, he said he was very good at his job and his handler never once told him he was collecting too much, no matter whom he was spying on.

Rahman said he thought he was doing important work protecting New York City and considered himself a hero.

One of his earliest assignments was to spy on a February lecture at the Muslim Student Association at John Jay College in Manhattan. The speaker was Ali Abdul Karim, the head of security at the Masjid At-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn.

The NYPD had been concerned about Karim for years and already had infiltrated the mosque, according to NYPD documents obtained by the AP.


Denials: Police officials, including commissioner Ray Kelly, denied widespread NYPD spying, saying police only follow leads

Rahman also was instructed to monitor the student group itself, though he wasn't told to target anyone specifically. His NYPD handler, Steve, told him to take pictures of people at the events, determine who belonged to the student association and identify its leadership.

Rahman attended the event with Karim and listened, ready to catch what he called a 'speaker's gaffe.' The NYPD was interested in buzz words such as 'jihad' and 'revolution,' he said. Any radical rhetoric, the NYPD told him, needed to be reported...

(click here to read the full article)

NYC rightly so refuses to defend 29-yr NYPD veteran who pepper sprayed OWS protesters - and it all was caught on tape

RT NEWS
August 3, 2012

Screenshot from YouTube user LeakSourceArchive

New York City will not provide a defense attorney for Police Officer Anthony Bologna, who was caught on camera pepper-spraying Occupy Wall Street protesters and now faces a civil lawsuit.

The now-notorious cop, a 29-year veteran of the NYPD and a deputy inspector, will have to cover his own legal fees, with the help of his union, the Captains Endowment Association.

A widely seen YouTube video showed Bologna pepper spraying at least two girls at an Occupy protest, who fell to the ground, screaming and crying in pain while the officer purportedly turned and walked away.

A month after the Sept. 24 incident, a police investigation found that the cop had violated NYPD guidelines.

Patrol Guide 212-95 lists situations in which an officer may legally use pepper spray. It may only be used in situations where the officer must protect himself or another from harm, establish control of someone resisting arrest or someone trying to flee from custody, establish control of an emotionally disturbed person or prevent an attack from a dangerous animal.

Officer Bologna’s immediate punishment was a command discipline that docked his vacation by 10 days. The cop accepted the punishment, hoping he could move on with his career. But in February, his two victims filed a lawsuit against Bologna for illegally spraying them. The city, in turn, refused to protect the cop. An unrelated group of two protesters filed an additional lawsuit against the cop on Tuesday. Aside from paying for his own defense, Bologna may also be held personally liable for financial damages that could arise out of the suit.

Even though he claims he did not intend to spray the women, the city is only required to provide “representation and indemnification if the employee was acting in the discharge of his or her duties and was not in violation of any rules or regulations of his/her agency at the time in question,” said Muriel Goode-Trufant, chief of the Law Department’s Special Federal Litigation Division, in an e-mail correspondence with the Wall Street Journal.

In 1,376 federal civil rights cases pending against NYPD officers, the city has refused to cover defense costs in fewer than five per cent of cases, said Goode-Trufant. An attorney representing the pepper spray victims said she believes that the YouTube video of the incident affected the city’s decision not to defend the officer.

“If it wasn’t on video, I think it would be another he said-she said case,” the attorney said.

But the scene, which clearly shows the officer bringing two harmless protesters to their knees, is a powerful image that may have embarrassed the NYPD and the city, leading to their refusal to be associated with the defendant.

Secret NYPD cell operated in New Brunswick, NJ and gets flushed by 911 call ?!?

RT NEWS
July 25, 2012

“Really? In New Brunswick?” asks a baffled 911 operator as an alarmed caller reports an empty flat strewn with photos of terrorists and Muslim books. But when the FBI dashed to the scene, they find not a terrorist cell but a New York police hideout.

Nothing promised such a major embarrassment for the New York Police Department on a June day. Then the 911 telephone line of the New Brunswick Police rang. An alarmed resident of the New Jersey town was saying he had come across something very suspicious.

[...]

"There's computer hardware, software, you know, just lying around,” continued the caller. “There's pictures of terrorists. There's pictures of our neighboring building that they have."

"In New Brunswick?" the dispatcher asked – still seemingly unconvinced.

Though the two were talking back in 2009, the tape of the call has only this week been obtained from the New Brunswick Police Department, following a court action by the Associated Press.

The caller, Salil Sheth, had just been doing his job, conducting a routine inspection and had come across a flat which almost screamed 9/11. Rushing to the scene, the FBI found a small apartment with no furniture or clothes, but with two computers, dozens of black plastic boxes and piles of Muslim literature on the solitary table.

A closer look at apartment No.1076 caused eyebrows to be raised even higher. This was no terrorist cell, but a secret hideout of New York City Police Department detectives, who later proved to have been gathering intelligence on the Muslim community of New Brunswick. But the NYPD had not bothered to inform local officers and agents of the operation.

The materials found at the apartment showed New York officers had been using various techniques to spy on New Brunswick Muslims. They had infiltrated mosques, eavesdropped in cafes, kept tabs on student groups, including some at Rutgers University. This had enabled the officers to build databases on virtually anything...

(click here to read the full article on RT NEWS)