And folks, you can best bet that if enough of you write me in as Mayor of Greensboro I will do just exactly as Captain Anita Holder recommends.
As always, please share so others will also know.
Showing posts with label GPD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GPD. Show all posts
Friday, October 6, 2017
Anita Holder On Greensboro's Police Body Cameras
Just in case you don't know, Anita Holder is Captain Anita Holder, retired interim Chief of the Greensboro Police Department, and the first female to hold the position. And by clicking on the photo you can see what Chief Holder had to say about Greensboro's Police body cameras.
And folks, you can best bet that if enough of you write me in as Mayor of Greensboro I will do just exactly as Captain Anita Holder recommends.
As always, please share so others will also know.
And folks, you can best bet that if enough of you write me in as Mayor of Greensboro I will do just exactly as Captain Anita Holder recommends.
As always, please share so others will also know.
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Are White Kids At Risk Too?
Child murdered at Erwin Montessori School 3012 East Bessemer Ave. Now maybe some of you white people on the west side will take interest: https://greensboro101.com/news-release-teen-shooting-victim-succumbs-to-wounds-170821/
And be sure to notice the official police document left off the name of the school.
And be sure to notice the official police document left off the name of the school.
Thursday, August 3, 2017
On Police And Fire Department Raises
Today, Jordan Green of Triad City Beat opines, Increasing pay for police and fire doesn’t please everyone. My reply:
Jordan wrote: "Police and fire consume the largest share of the budget and employ the largest number of employees, making them an effective voting bloc..."
But is that true? The part about the effective voting bloc, I mean? How many Greensboro Police Officers actually live and vote in the City of Greensboro? I know a lot of GPD officers and few live in Greensboro. While that's an easy assumption to make, is it correct? Or is that simply what the media and elected officials perceive to be true?
Jordan continued: "City leaders tend to worry about police morale in particular out of concern that officers will perform less effectively if they’re not happy on the job."
One would certainly think that to be true but beginning with the way the Chief of Police is a political appointment by City Council right down to the way City Council has constantly used GPD as scapegoats in Council's own scandals like the recent cover-up of the facts concerning the party at the Vaughan household (Look it up, parts are missing from the P2C website) it becomes obvious GPD is regarded by Council as just another tool to their own means.
Obviously pay is low here. Pay is low for everyone including journalists. Pay will always be low here as long as our city continues to be run by corrupt and inept leaders. And the saddest part, any attempt to correct low wages in any one sector of the population without solving our problems as a whole is divisive as it simply robs Peter to pay Paul.
Jordan wrote: "Police and fire consume the largest share of the budget and employ the largest number of employees, making them an effective voting bloc..."
But is that true? The part about the effective voting bloc, I mean? How many Greensboro Police Officers actually live and vote in the City of Greensboro? I know a lot of GPD officers and few live in Greensboro. While that's an easy assumption to make, is it correct? Or is that simply what the media and elected officials perceive to be true?
Jordan continued: "City leaders tend to worry about police morale in particular out of concern that officers will perform less effectively if they’re not happy on the job."
One would certainly think that to be true but beginning with the way the Chief of Police is a political appointment by City Council right down to the way City Council has constantly used GPD as scapegoats in Council's own scandals like the recent cover-up of the facts concerning the party at the Vaughan household (Look it up, parts are missing from the P2C website) it becomes obvious GPD is regarded by Council as just another tool to their own means.
Obviously pay is low here. Pay is low for everyone including journalists. Pay will always be low here as long as our city continues to be run by corrupt and inept leaders. And the saddest part, any attempt to correct low wages in any one sector of the population without solving our problems as a whole is divisive as it simply robs Peter to pay Paul.
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Technically
In discussing A Conversation With John Brown, Roch Smith jr of Greensboro101.com wrote the following to me:
"A man is driving down the street late at night, tired and thirsty. He sees a convenience store with a sign that says "Open 24 hours" so he pulls in, parks and walks to the door only to find it locked.
Seeing someone inside, he shouts through the door "The sign says you are open 24 hours."
The man shrugs and shouts back, "Not in a row."
John Brown says he has been a resident of Greensboro for 30 years and he did live in Randolph county for years. But he is old enough that, if he lived in Greensboro prior to moving to Randolph County and back, he may have accumulated 30 years of residency here. Just "not in a row."
That could well be true, we don't know. But John Brown, like so many who seek power here in Greensboro, stopped talking and threatened me with a law suit when I started asking the tough questions.
Nancy Vaughan stopped talking as well. So did Tony Wilkins, Mike Barber, Zack Matheny and others. And like John Brown they all attempted to threaten or discredit me in one way or another.
But none of them ever provided any documentation.
If you read the posts I write about incumbents and candidates alike you will see I include the documentation.
Now here's an interesting aside for you. The much more affluent community of Gibsonville, North Carolina is being given police body cameras by the City of Greensboro. Body cameras, you, Dear Greensboro Taxpayers, paid for.
That's right, that's where your $350 Million Dollar Bond package is going, to keep the taxes lower in the more affluent communities surrounding Greensboro rather than taking care of needs right here where we live. How many other outlying communities are getting favors at your expense? These are the people we vote into office, who hide behind technicalities like, I don't own the company, my wife owns the company, when in fact the company does business with the City of Greensboro.
Are we gaining anything by replacing one group of cronies with another group of cronies?
Technically, we are not.
"A man is driving down the street late at night, tired and thirsty. He sees a convenience store with a sign that says "Open 24 hours" so he pulls in, parks and walks to the door only to find it locked.
Seeing someone inside, he shouts through the door "The sign says you are open 24 hours."
The man shrugs and shouts back, "Not in a row."
John Brown says he has been a resident of Greensboro for 30 years and he did live in Randolph county for years. But he is old enough that, if he lived in Greensboro prior to moving to Randolph County and back, he may have accumulated 30 years of residency here. Just "not in a row."
That could well be true, we don't know. But John Brown, like so many who seek power here in Greensboro, stopped talking and threatened me with a law suit when I started asking the tough questions.
Nancy Vaughan stopped talking as well. So did Tony Wilkins, Mike Barber, Zack Matheny and others. And like John Brown they all attempted to threaten or discredit me in one way or another.
But none of them ever provided any documentation.
If you read the posts I write about incumbents and candidates alike you will see I include the documentation.
Now here's an interesting aside for you. The much more affluent community of Gibsonville, North Carolina is being given police body cameras by the City of Greensboro. Body cameras, you, Dear Greensboro Taxpayers, paid for.
That's right, that's where your $350 Million Dollar Bond package is going, to keep the taxes lower in the more affluent communities surrounding Greensboro rather than taking care of needs right here where we live. How many other outlying communities are getting favors at your expense? These are the people we vote into office, who hide behind technicalities like, I don't own the company, my wife owns the company, when in fact the company does business with the City of Greensboro.
Are we gaining anything by replacing one group of cronies with another group of cronies?
Technically, we are not.
Sunday, July 16, 2017
Remembering Reginald Demarcus Wrenn
I was looking out my window that night, already talking to Guilford County 911 reporting the noise at the liquor house when the shots rang out, the kids started screaming, cars sped away and the body of 24 year old Reginald Demarcus Wrenn was left dying on the street in front of the liquor house.
Every year since, friends and family of Reginald Demarcus Wrenn have gathered at the place where he died. To this day the media has never told the entire story saying only as Fox8 wrote 2 days ago:
"Police say it was over a fender bender."
The media never mentions the liquor house that had operated there freely, selling alcohol and drugs to hundreds of minors every night of the week for months despite the full knowledge of the Greensboro Police Department right up to then Chief Ken Miller.
How do I know Ken Miller knew about it? A public information request to the City of Greensboro should provide you with my e-mails to him concerning the subject. The Greensboro Police Department and the City of Greensboro should be held accountable.
Amazingly, the very night before it happened I wrote, There's Racism And Then There's Racism in which I explained how institutional racism makes entire communities suffer, black and white:
"When city leaders, developers and realtors conspire to deprive a neighborhood of adequate police protection because the neighborhood is mostly black and they'd rather concentrate police resources in the higher end neighborhoods where the city leaders, developers and realtors live-- that's institutional racism. That went on for over 30 years in my northeast Greensboro neighborhood.
You see, unbeknownst to a lot of you high class white folk, us poor white folk that got left behind are finally beginning to figure out that we too have been victims of white on black racism for all these years. Not the he said she's a nigger and won't give her a job type racism but the more dangerous and destructive institutional racism with its repeated "friendly fire" incidents. And like our black neighbors who we finally learned to love, we're starting to get pissed-off about getting discriminated against.
Now admittedly, we weren't very bright, it took way too long for us to figure this stuff out and a lot of our kind still don't get it but when they do get it-- and they will-- there is going to be hell to pay right here in Greensboro.
When the Mayor of Greensboro, city funded non profits, developers and realtors conspire to deprive a mostly black neighborhood of high paying jobs while building industrial parks on the lilly white county lines 10 miles outside the city limits and downtown performing arts centers at taxpayers' expense-- that too could be seen as Institutional racism."
You should be able to do a public information request and find that e-mail as well. What are they going to do to me? I've got Pulmonary Fibrosis and no health insurance. I didn't fail to do my job and cause the death of Reginald Demarcus Wrenn, I saved other young people by convincing Ken Miller that we were going to do what he wasn't doing.
After all, it's not like this neighborhood hadn't done it before.
Fox8 Reports:
Every year since, friends and family of Reginald Demarcus Wrenn have gathered at the place where he died. To this day the media has never told the entire story saying only as Fox8 wrote 2 days ago:
"Police say it was over a fender bender."
The media never mentions the liquor house that had operated there freely, selling alcohol and drugs to hundreds of minors every night of the week for months despite the full knowledge of the Greensboro Police Department right up to then Chief Ken Miller.
How do I know Ken Miller knew about it? A public information request to the City of Greensboro should provide you with my e-mails to him concerning the subject. The Greensboro Police Department and the City of Greensboro should be held accountable.
Amazingly, the very night before it happened I wrote, There's Racism And Then There's Racism in which I explained how institutional racism makes entire communities suffer, black and white:
"When city leaders, developers and realtors conspire to deprive a neighborhood of adequate police protection because the neighborhood is mostly black and they'd rather concentrate police resources in the higher end neighborhoods where the city leaders, developers and realtors live-- that's institutional racism. That went on for over 30 years in my northeast Greensboro neighborhood.
You see, unbeknownst to a lot of you high class white folk, us poor white folk that got left behind are finally beginning to figure out that we too have been victims of white on black racism for all these years. Not the he said she's a nigger and won't give her a job type racism but the more dangerous and destructive institutional racism with its repeated "friendly fire" incidents. And like our black neighbors who we finally learned to love, we're starting to get pissed-off about getting discriminated against.
Now admittedly, we weren't very bright, it took way too long for us to figure this stuff out and a lot of our kind still don't get it but when they do get it-- and they will-- there is going to be hell to pay right here in Greensboro.
When the Mayor of Greensboro, city funded non profits, developers and realtors conspire to deprive a mostly black neighborhood of high paying jobs while building industrial parks on the lilly white county lines 10 miles outside the city limits and downtown performing arts centers at taxpayers' expense-- that too could be seen as Institutional racism."
The death of 24 year old Reginald Demarcus Wrenn was not just over a fender bender as police would like you to believe. Reginald Demarcus Wrenn was the only sober person there. He went there to pick up his younger brother and got shot to death when trying to break up the fight between his brother and the 22 year old who shot Demarcus to death. Over a fight started by Demarcus' brother.
All these years later "I still hear a young black woman on crutches crying her heart out as she makes her way from the liquor house, past my house and up the street, "Stupid niggers, stupid niggers, they fuck it up for all of us..."
But had the Greensboro Police Department not delayed for months in closing that liquor house, Reginald Demarcus Wrenn might still be alive today.
Reginald Demarcus Wrenn had a good job, was engaged to a young nurse in Burlington. After his death she came to visit me along with their friends. They were planning to buy a home and start a family someday. She came to visit me because I was the only one writing the truth about what happened that night in a series of articles that made me widely known in East Greensboro among people who might not have known me otherwise.
All these years later "I still hear a young black woman on crutches crying her heart out as she makes her way from the liquor house, past my house and up the street, "Stupid niggers, stupid niggers, they fuck it up for all of us..."
But had the Greensboro Police Department not delayed for months in closing that liquor house, Reginald Demarcus Wrenn might still be alive today.
Reginald Demarcus Wrenn had a good job, was engaged to a young nurse in Burlington. After his death she came to visit me along with their friends. They were planning to buy a home and start a family someday. She came to visit me because I was the only one writing the truth about what happened that night in a series of articles that made me widely known in East Greensboro among people who might not have known me otherwise.
Reginald Demarcus Wrenn died because the Greensboro Police Department committed Institutional racism in failing to stop a known problem that would have never been tolerated for even a single weekend in any upscale Greensboro neighborhood.
And to add insult to injury, the liquor house was allowed to operate 7 nights a week for over a month after the death of Reginald Demarcus Wrenn, and was only closed when I e-mailed Ken Miller to warn him we were about to burn it down.
You should be able to do a public information request and find that e-mail as well. What are they going to do to me? I've got Pulmonary Fibrosis and no health insurance. I didn't fail to do my job and cause the death of Reginald Demarcus Wrenn, I saved other young people by convincing Ken Miller that we were going to do what he wasn't doing.
After all, it's not like this neighborhood hadn't done it before.
Fox8 Reports:
“If I can prevent another mom or another dad from experiencing what I have experienced, me coming out here makes it all worth it," she said."
A month later I too experienced the loss of my son, Jason.
I welcome Pastor Deborah White and The Sky's the Limit Walk to my corner forever.
I welcome Pastor Deborah White and The Sky's the Limit Walk to my corner forever.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Marc Ridgill Confirms GPD Corruption
Yesterday Roch Smith jr posted Police Chief negligent; City Council complicit, a scathing accusation accompanied by lots of evidence to show corruption on the part of the Greensboro City Council and the Greensboro Police Department.
"Yesterday, I sent an email to the acquaintance saying that I found the Greensboro Police Department’s actions on the “fish game” gambling parlors to fall into that realm—that the GPD’s decision to declare these games illegal, observe that they are magnets for crime and, yet, give the owners 30 days to shut down was a kind of negligence that was putting the interests of admittedly illegal business owners ahead of the safety of the public who visit these places; and exposing the city to financial liability."
Roch continues:
So when I posted a link to Roch's article to the Facebook forum EzGreensboro Posts Only, Retired Greensboro Police Officer Marc Ridgill made the following reply:
"Admittedly I am not as knowledgable on "fish games" but there are plenty of other gambling establishments masquerading as restaurants and taverns in this town that are frequented by movers and shakers. Let us see if they get called out?"
And as usual I took a screen grab:
Here we have it, folks, a respected and retired Greensboro Police Officer calling the management of GPD corrupt and accusing GPD of allowing illegal gambling establishments to operate right under their noses.
So will these other establishments get called out? Or will Greensboro continue to rot from the top down?
"Yesterday, I sent an email to the acquaintance saying that I found the Greensboro Police Department’s actions on the “fish game” gambling parlors to fall into that realm—that the GPD’s decision to declare these games illegal, observe that they are magnets for crime and, yet, give the owners 30 days to shut down was a kind of negligence that was putting the interests of admittedly illegal business owners ahead of the safety of the public who visit these places; and exposing the city to financial liability."
Roch continues:
So when I posted a link to Roch's article to the Facebook forum EzGreensboro Posts Only, Retired Greensboro Police Officer Marc Ridgill made the following reply:
"Admittedly I am not as knowledgable on "fish games" but there are plenty of other gambling establishments masquerading as restaurants and taverns in this town that are frequented by movers and shakers. Let us see if they get called out?"
And as usual I took a screen grab:
Here we have it, folks, a respected and retired Greensboro Police Officer calling the management of GPD corrupt and accusing GPD of allowing illegal gambling establishments to operate right under their noses.
So will these other establishments get called out? Or will Greensboro continue to rot from the top down?
Saturday, May 6, 2017
My Thoughts Exactly
This morning, as I watched body camera video released by the City of Winston-Salem of an incident that happened just 24 hours before, I couldn't help but think. why is it that it is against state law for Greensboro to release police body camera video but it is apparently not against the law for Winston-Salem to release police body camera video?
And I can't help but believe that both supporters and adversaries of the Greensboro Police Department would agree this is the problem in a nutshell.
Well just this morning, Roch Smith jr posted not one but two articles on the subject. In an article titled Mayor, Council members are full of it, Roch wrote of Mayor Vaughan and Councilman Outling:
"As I say, either they are lying about their desires or not too bright. Maybe they think we won’t notice that their words do not align with their actions. Maybe they think we won’t remember that when it came to voting on a resolution to oppose the state law they now bemoan, they each voted not to oppose it. But we remember."
And then Roch followed up with Now we know just how full of it Nancy Vaughan and Justin Outling were, as he pens:
"Vaughan had told reporters, “I wish we had the ability to release the video,” and “There is nothing we can do next.”
Outling told the Rhino Times it was “out of the control of the City Council.”
Today, the city of Winston-Salem released police body camera video it went before a judge to get released."
Funny, it took the City of Winston-Salem less than 24 hours to get a judge to release their video but it took the City of Greensboro almost a year to get a judge to allow City Council to look at a police body camera video the public has yet to see.
No matter where you stand on the issue, I think it is now quite clear the Greensboro City Council is the problem.
We cannot expect our police department to remain above reproach when our finest officers are forced to work for the criminals in elected office. It is simply impossible for them to do. Let's stop asking GPD to do the impossible.
And I can't help but believe that both supporters and adversaries of the Greensboro Police Department would agree this is the problem in a nutshell.
Well just this morning, Roch Smith jr posted not one but two articles on the subject. In an article titled Mayor, Council members are full of it, Roch wrote of Mayor Vaughan and Councilman Outling:
"As I say, either they are lying about their desires or not too bright. Maybe they think we won’t notice that their words do not align with their actions. Maybe they think we won’t remember that when it came to voting on a resolution to oppose the state law they now bemoan, they each voted not to oppose it. But we remember."
And then Roch followed up with Now we know just how full of it Nancy Vaughan and Justin Outling were, as he pens:
"Vaughan had told reporters, “I wish we had the ability to release the video,” and “There is nothing we can do next.”
Outling told the Rhino Times it was “out of the control of the City Council.”
Today, the city of Winston-Salem released police body camera video it went before a judge to get released."
Funny, it took the City of Winston-Salem less than 24 hours to get a judge to release their video but it took the City of Greensboro almost a year to get a judge to allow City Council to look at a police body camera video the public has yet to see.
No matter where you stand on the issue, I think it is now quite clear the Greensboro City Council is the problem.
We cannot expect our police department to remain above reproach when our finest officers are forced to work for the criminals in elected office. It is simply impossible for them to do. Let's stop asking GPD to do the impossible.
Friday, October 7, 2016
The Truth at 2 Mistywood Ct.
Greensboro resident Sal Leone sends the following letter to the editor along with an attachment.
Short and conceive. And here's a link to the attachment: List of Events 2 Mistywood Ct.
"You can post this with my name on it, my first story, we can call it
The Truth at 2 Mistywood Ct."
Short and conceive. And here's a link to the attachment: List of Events 2 Mistywood Ct.
Editor's Note: The redactions were made by the City of Greensboro, Greensboro Police, Legal Department.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
What Greensboro Didn't Tell You About Dejuan Yourse
I have it on good authority that as of this afternoon, Greensboro Police Captain James Hinson called Greensboro Police Officer CN Jackson-- seen in the video below-- demanding her immediate resignation under threat of being fired for her part in the incident you see in the video.
My question to Captain Hinson is: What in the hell could Ms Jackson have done to stop Officer Travis Cole from assaulting Dejuan Yourse, shoot one or the other of them?
The assault of Dejuan Yourse by Officer Travis Cole was wrong and the City of Greensboro has already paid Mr Yourse a cash settlement despite the fact that Mr Yourse's mother had a restraining order against her son to keep him away from her home. (Bet you hadn't read that anywhere else, had you?) There is said to be a 3rd body camera video of Mrs Yourse thanking Greensboro Police for not allowing her son to break into her home... again.
Yesterday, when I first posted this video, along with links to City Council videos, I was unaware of the restraining order and Mr Yourse's long criminal record. Not that any of that makes it okay to assault him but there's far more here than we are being told.
Captain Hinson's actions are demoralizing the entire Greensboro Police Department at a time when even our best and brightest police officers are rethinking their decisions to become police officers. And that we cannot afford.
Captain Hinson needs to explain himself and explain to the public why he is demanding officer Jackson leave the Greensboro Police Department.
Update: High Point is about to offer matching pay for lateral transfers. Winston-Salem is desperate for new cops, to the point they are recruiting out of New York City and GPD is already down about 50 officers. Hinson must go now.
My question to Captain Hinson is: What in the hell could Ms Jackson have done to stop Officer Travis Cole from assaulting Dejuan Yourse, shoot one or the other of them?
The assault of Dejuan Yourse by Officer Travis Cole was wrong and the City of Greensboro has already paid Mr Yourse a cash settlement despite the fact that Mr Yourse's mother had a restraining order against her son to keep him away from her home. (Bet you hadn't read that anywhere else, had you?) There is said to be a 3rd body camera video of Mrs Yourse thanking Greensboro Police for not allowing her son to break into her home... again.
Yesterday, when I first posted this video, along with links to City Council videos, I was unaware of the restraining order and Mr Yourse's long criminal record. Not that any of that makes it okay to assault him but there's far more here than we are being told.
Captain Hinson's actions are demoralizing the entire Greensboro Police Department at a time when even our best and brightest police officers are rethinking their decisions to become police officers. And that we cannot afford.
Captain Hinson needs to explain himself and explain to the public why he is demanding officer Jackson leave the Greensboro Police Department.
Update: High Point is about to offer matching pay for lateral transfers. Winston-Salem is desperate for new cops, to the point they are recruiting out of New York City and GPD is already down about 50 officers. Hinson must go now.
Monday, August 22, 2016
Was Zack Matheny Alone When He Was Busted For DWI?
Here at EzGreensboro.com, we hear lots of rumors about the people who run the City of Greensboro-- many of them very nasty rumors. Most of what we hear turns out to be complete fabrications with no basis in fact but once in a great while we happen upon a rumor that turns out to be true.
Those are the rumors we publish.
Without naming names, we were told by several somewhat credible sources that someone- a very prominent resident of Greensboro-- was in the car with former Greensboro City Councilman Zack Matheny that fated night when he was found parked in the parking lot of a methadone clinic on North Church Street, passed out drunk in his car, and cited by Greensboro Police for DWI.
But we couldn't prove it to be true.
So on July 19, 2016 we submitted the following public information request to the City of Greensboro in the hopes of clearing up the rumor once and for all.
GPD never denied a body camera video existed. Instead, on August 3, 2016, I was forwarded the following e-mail from the City of Greensboro:
We found that rather interesting as previously the Greensboro Police Department had previously stated that GPD did not regard Police body camera videos as employee records. Now suddenly they did. My reply: You'll notice among others, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan and GPD Legal Jim Clark, are included recipients:
Today I received the following explanation, if you will, from the City of Greensboro. Read it carefully as I'm going to use parts of it to show you how these people are either hiding something they don't want you to know, or too stupid to realize how the public will react to their efforts at hiding the truth.
From the e-mail posted above:
That's very true, I'm not Zack Matheney and my name is not the name of the person whose name is being circulated as being in the car with Mr Methany that night. But they also wrote the following:
And this:
Kinda makes you wonder why not?
Should I demand a hearing with the Greensboro Police Community Review Board or just allow the rumor to continue unchecked?
I mean, Folks, I'm already suing the City of Greensboro with an open and shut case for failing to properly comply with State Public Records laws and they're stupid enough to keep doing what they're doing? Go figure.
Update: August 23, 2016, 10:09 AM. I just sent to following e-mail to Zack Methany and others as Mr Methany has the legal authority to clear his own name. Will he do so?
Update 2: August 24, 2016, In response to the City's response, Dishonesty reigns by Roch Smith jr, A very scathing account pointing out the lies being perpertrated by the City of Greensboro concerning this matter.
Those are the rumors we publish.
Without naming names, we were told by several somewhat credible sources that someone- a very prominent resident of Greensboro-- was in the car with former Greensboro City Councilman Zack Matheny that fated night when he was found parked in the parking lot of a methadone clinic on North Church Street, passed out drunk in his car, and cited by Greensboro Police for DWI.
But we couldn't prove it to be true.
So on July 19, 2016 we submitted the following public information request to the City of Greensboro in the hopes of clearing up the rumor once and for all.
GPD never denied a body camera video existed. Instead, on August 3, 2016, I was forwarded the following e-mail from the City of Greensboro:
We found that rather interesting as previously the Greensboro Police Department had previously stated that GPD did not regard Police body camera videos as employee records. Now suddenly they did. My reply: You'll notice among others, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan and GPD Legal Jim Clark, are included recipients:
Today I received the following explanation, if you will, from the City of Greensboro. Read it carefully as I'm going to use parts of it to show you how these people are either hiding something they don't want you to know, or too stupid to realize how the public will react to their efforts at hiding the truth.
From the e-mail posted above:
"The City has determined that you are not depicted, visually or through audio recording, in the recording you are requesting, and you are not the personal representative of a person depicted in the recording you are requesting."
That's very true, I'm not Zack Matheney and my name is not the name of the person whose name is being circulated as being in the car with Mr Methany that night. But they also wrote the following:
"The City Manager or City Council, however, may disclose or release a Body Worn Camera recording to any person, personal representative, or the general public upon a finding that the release of the recording is essential to maintain public confidence in the administration of City services."
And this:
"There has been no finding that the release of the recording you seek is essential to maintain public confidence in the administration of City services. "
Kinda makes you wonder why not?
Should I demand a hearing with the Greensboro Police Community Review Board or just allow the rumor to continue unchecked?
I mean, Folks, I'm already suing the City of Greensboro with an open and shut case for failing to properly comply with State Public Records laws and they're stupid enough to keep doing what they're doing? Go figure.
Update: August 23, 2016, 10:09 AM. I just sent to following e-mail to Zack Methany and others as Mr Methany has the legal authority to clear his own name. Will he do so?
Update 2: August 24, 2016, In response to the City's response, Dishonesty reigns by Roch Smith jr, A very scathing account pointing out the lies being perpertrated by the City of Greensboro concerning this matter.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
How Our Police Contribute To The Distruction Of Our Poor And Minority Neighborhoods
Meet Joe. Joe is young, still wet behind the ears. Joe isn't his real name but Joe is what I'll call him to protect his life, as snitches don't live long in the North Carolina Prison system.
Last Monday morning Joe bought a used car from a friend and left her house driving the car with no insurance. Her tags were still on the car but she had stopped paying her monthly premiums to Geico Insurance.
Previously, Joe had been arrested on various drug charges, assault charges, weapons charges... you name it, Joe did it. But Joe managed to stay out of jail by becoming a confidential informant.
Last Monday evening at around 4:00 PM, Joe, with his girlfriend in the car with him, crashed his tiny car head on into my Mother's parked 98 Mercury Marquis driving the giant Mercury backwards no less than 11 feet and totaling both cars on the usually quiet residential street where she lives.
The good news: thanks to uninsured motorist coverage, Momma has gotten a generous settlement from her insurance company, Nationwide, is selling back the car and I will be fixing it so that she can continue to drive 1/2 mile to church twice a week. That's good as getting her in and out of my standard height pick-up truck requires that I place a step in front of the door each time she gets in and out. Let's hope all of you have someone to help you when you become elderly.
When I heard the crash I ran outside and saw Joe and his girlfriend running away from the crash. I shouted, "Where in the hell do you think you're going?" but they just kept running.
One block to the east, my brother heard the crash and walked out of his house to see if he could see what had happened. Joe ran straight into him. My brother recognized Joe because Joe lives 2 doors down from my brother. Joe's younger brother lives with their parents straight up the street from me 2 blocks in the other direction and works at a business in the neighborhood.
It turns out that most everyone in the neighborhood with the exception of myself and Momma knew who Joe was. Including my next door neighbors who witnessed the accident.
As a matter of fact, when a Greensboro Police Officer finally arrived over 30 minutes later and we described Joe and his girlfriend to him, he stopped in the middle of filling out his accident report and drove straight to Joe's house where my brother was standing waiting for Joe to come back out.
Apparently the cop knew Joe as well.
And everyone, black and white, was shocked when the cop didn't search the car Joe left behind despite being filled with evidence of having been used as a place to roll blunts.
But Joe didn't come out, not even to get in the taxi he had called to take his girlfriend to Cone Hospital. Instead, the two of them escaped out the back and went from hiding place to hiding place calling taxis to pick them up.
Problem is: despite the fact that I'm an asshole, everybody loves my Momma. Ms Jones, as everyone here calls her, founded the first such night out event in Greensboro a year before National Night Out began, in her front yard. Dozens upon dozens of neighbors, police officers and others came from miles around as my brothers and I parked cars in the crack dealer's yard across the street. The next morning the crack dealers and their violence, were gone.
Momma also taught school all over east Greensboro for many years. She's 84 now but her former students black and white still remember and love her as she never met a child she didn't love. She helped to raise several generations of children in the neighborhood black and white. All the neighbors know she dearly loves her black great granddaughters and the black man who fathered them. And then there were her many years of volunteering in a neighborhood food pantry.
All this led to people from all over the neighborhood joining in the chase for Joe and scaring off his taxis.
But eventually Joe did manage to get his girlfriend to Cone Hospital where police found him and charged him with hit and run.
But they didn't arrest Joe.
Interestingly, when I got the accident report I decided to do some research on Joe.
I found the long list of various crimes I mentioned above but there was something strange going on. I found the accident report online on Wednesday but on Thursday the accident report was no longer online.
Later Thursday, I discovered that Joe had shot 2 people in his home on Wednesday night. Now, suddenly, everything I had previously discovered about Joe had mysteriously disappeared from the Internet. That is, everything except the shooting.
I guess a shooting is just too big to cover up.
So what we have here is the police allowing Joe to continue to spiral out of control, unchecked, committing bigger and bigger crimes, endangering more lives, putting more people at risk so cops can score the big bust at the expense pf poor and minority neighborhoods. There is really no end to how many crimes or how many people Joe's drug dealing and violence could have touched had he not shot 2 people in his home that night, forcing the Greensboro Police Department to reel him in.
All so someone can get a star on his work record, a promotion, a raise, and GPD, like police departments across the nation, can confiscate money and property to buy new cop toys.
You see, Joe came to believe that as long as he remained a confidential informant he could do anything he wanted to do. Between his own drug habit and his fantasy that he would never be punished for his crimes, Joe continued to escalate.
And all of East Greensboro's poor and minorities lose while our middle class pays to send young Joe to the Hardened Criminal Training Institute known as the North Carolina Prison System where he will get out in just a few years with an advanced degree in the Art and Science of Committing Criminal Acts that Pay.
Please share if you're ready to change the way things are done here in Greensboro, North Carolina, ready to start providing opportunities rather than the road to prison, hope instead of death, and to make Greensboro the beacon the rest of the world wishes to become.
Last Monday morning Joe bought a used car from a friend and left her house driving the car with no insurance. Her tags were still on the car but she had stopped paying her monthly premiums to Geico Insurance.
Previously, Joe had been arrested on various drug charges, assault charges, weapons charges... you name it, Joe did it. But Joe managed to stay out of jail by becoming a confidential informant.
Last Monday evening at around 4:00 PM, Joe, with his girlfriend in the car with him, crashed his tiny car head on into my Mother's parked 98 Mercury Marquis driving the giant Mercury backwards no less than 11 feet and totaling both cars on the usually quiet residential street where she lives.
The good news: thanks to uninsured motorist coverage, Momma has gotten a generous settlement from her insurance company, Nationwide, is selling back the car and I will be fixing it so that she can continue to drive 1/2 mile to church twice a week. That's good as getting her in and out of my standard height pick-up truck requires that I place a step in front of the door each time she gets in and out. Let's hope all of you have someone to help you when you become elderly.
When I heard the crash I ran outside and saw Joe and his girlfriend running away from the crash. I shouted, "Where in the hell do you think you're going?" but they just kept running.
One block to the east, my brother heard the crash and walked out of his house to see if he could see what had happened. Joe ran straight into him. My brother recognized Joe because Joe lives 2 doors down from my brother. Joe's younger brother lives with their parents straight up the street from me 2 blocks in the other direction and works at a business in the neighborhood.
It turns out that most everyone in the neighborhood with the exception of myself and Momma knew who Joe was. Including my next door neighbors who witnessed the accident.
As a matter of fact, when a Greensboro Police Officer finally arrived over 30 minutes later and we described Joe and his girlfriend to him, he stopped in the middle of filling out his accident report and drove straight to Joe's house where my brother was standing waiting for Joe to come back out.
Apparently the cop knew Joe as well.
And everyone, black and white, was shocked when the cop didn't search the car Joe left behind despite being filled with evidence of having been used as a place to roll blunts.
But Joe didn't come out, not even to get in the taxi he had called to take his girlfriend to Cone Hospital. Instead, the two of them escaped out the back and went from hiding place to hiding place calling taxis to pick them up.
Problem is: despite the fact that I'm an asshole, everybody loves my Momma. Ms Jones, as everyone here calls her, founded the first such night out event in Greensboro a year before National Night Out began, in her front yard. Dozens upon dozens of neighbors, police officers and others came from miles around as my brothers and I parked cars in the crack dealer's yard across the street. The next morning the crack dealers and their violence, were gone.
Momma also taught school all over east Greensboro for many years. She's 84 now but her former students black and white still remember and love her as she never met a child she didn't love. She helped to raise several generations of children in the neighborhood black and white. All the neighbors know she dearly loves her black great granddaughters and the black man who fathered them. And then there were her many years of volunteering in a neighborhood food pantry.
All this led to people from all over the neighborhood joining in the chase for Joe and scaring off his taxis.
But eventually Joe did manage to get his girlfriend to Cone Hospital where police found him and charged him with hit and run.
But they didn't arrest Joe.
Interestingly, when I got the accident report I decided to do some research on Joe.
I found the long list of various crimes I mentioned above but there was something strange going on. I found the accident report online on Wednesday but on Thursday the accident report was no longer online.
Later Thursday, I discovered that Joe had shot 2 people in his home on Wednesday night. Now, suddenly, everything I had previously discovered about Joe had mysteriously disappeared from the Internet. That is, everything except the shooting.
I guess a shooting is just too big to cover up.
So what we have here is the police allowing Joe to continue to spiral out of control, unchecked, committing bigger and bigger crimes, endangering more lives, putting more people at risk so cops can score the big bust at the expense pf poor and minority neighborhoods. There is really no end to how many crimes or how many people Joe's drug dealing and violence could have touched had he not shot 2 people in his home that night, forcing the Greensboro Police Department to reel him in.
All so someone can get a star on his work record, a promotion, a raise, and GPD, like police departments across the nation, can confiscate money and property to buy new cop toys.
You see, Joe came to believe that as long as he remained a confidential informant he could do anything he wanted to do. Between his own drug habit and his fantasy that he would never be punished for his crimes, Joe continued to escalate.
And all of East Greensboro's poor and minorities lose while our middle class pays to send young Joe to the Hardened Criminal Training Institute known as the North Carolina Prison System where he will get out in just a few years with an advanced degree in the Art and Science of Committing Criminal Acts that Pay.
Please share if you're ready to change the way things are done here in Greensboro, North Carolina, ready to start providing opportunities rather than the road to prison, hope instead of death, and to make Greensboro the beacon the rest of the world wishes to become.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Greensboro Fails ROI Police Spending
Perhaps you read Roch Smith jr's damming report of the Sickening Behavior of City Attorney Tom Carruthers and the Greensboro City Council as published this week in Yes-Weekly?
Perhaps that lack of transparency is why Greensboro scored just 49th overall in return on investment on Police Spending according to a recent survey by WalletHub. And when you consider that Detroit, Michican, long known as a very dangerous place to live, is ranked 5th in police ROI, it is beginning to look as if those new body cameras everyone is fighting about were a complete waste of money.
And so it is, my first update to Billy's Big List Of Documented Reasons Why Greensboro Sucks. How many more will there before our leaders get themselves and our city under control?
"What made Monday’s action particularly abhorrent was not just the unscrupulous treachery, but how much it marked a low-water mark for Mayor Nancy Vaughan who had campaigned against Perkins as a champion of transparency and is now abandoning those principals right before our eyes…"
Perhaps that lack of transparency is why Greensboro scored just 49th overall in return on investment on Police Spending according to a recent survey by WalletHub. And when you consider that Detroit, Michican, long known as a very dangerous place to live, is ranked 5th in police ROI, it is beginning to look as if those new body cameras everyone is fighting about were a complete waste of money.
And so it is, my first update to Billy's Big List Of Documented Reasons Why Greensboro Sucks. How many more will there before our leaders get themselves and our city under control?
Friday, April 1, 2016
When Riding Motorcycles Became Illegal
I remember in 1978 while living with my first wife and new born son on Boone Street just off of Tucker Street here in East Greensboro. My in laws had volunteered to keep the baby for the weekend so the wife and I could have some time alone. We spent much of the weekend riding my motorcycle.
As I didn't have shelter for my bike I stored it about a mile away at my parents' home on Textile Drive. When we finished riding I dropped my wife off at home and rode to Mom and Dad's to put my bike in the shed.
Just as pulled up to Mom and Dad's place a car appeared head on with bright spotlights but no blue lights or siren coming towards me at a high rate of speed. I accelerated into the yard to avoid being run over but the car drove into the yard as if the driver were trying to run me down. I'm certain that had I not managed to put a huge oak tree between us I would have been hit by the car.
A man got out of the car and began shouting at me to turn off the bike or he would shoot me. The lights from the car were blinding me but I finally made out the uniform of a Greensboro Police Officer.
He was still shouting at me, threatening my life when I heard the familiar sound of the slide on Daddy's 12 gauge pump shotgun coming from behind the police officer. Then as Daddy held his 36" barrel goose gun about 6 inches behind the officers head he said, "You shoot my boy and you won't live to tell it."
The officer left as fast as he could run to his car and speed away. No charges were filed against anyone and GPD denied the officer was ever there despite my neighbors having witnessed the event.
That's the way it was back in the day. The working classes were simply pushed around and there was nothing you could do about it. Had my Daddy not walked out that door when he did I might have been dead, my son left to grow up without ever knowing his father just as many poor children grow up today.
Well today there are things that can be done about it but as Lewis Pitts points out in his article, We, The People, call for police video to be public now, some of the powers that be still want to keep incidents like what happened to me a secret.
After all, there's no law against riding a motorcycle to mom and dad's house. Is there?
As I didn't have shelter for my bike I stored it about a mile away at my parents' home on Textile Drive. When we finished riding I dropped my wife off at home and rode to Mom and Dad's to put my bike in the shed.
Just as pulled up to Mom and Dad's place a car appeared head on with bright spotlights but no blue lights or siren coming towards me at a high rate of speed. I accelerated into the yard to avoid being run over but the car drove into the yard as if the driver were trying to run me down. I'm certain that had I not managed to put a huge oak tree between us I would have been hit by the car.
A man got out of the car and began shouting at me to turn off the bike or he would shoot me. The lights from the car were blinding me but I finally made out the uniform of a Greensboro Police Officer.
He was still shouting at me, threatening my life when I heard the familiar sound of the slide on Daddy's 12 gauge pump shotgun coming from behind the police officer. Then as Daddy held his 36" barrel goose gun about 6 inches behind the officers head he said, "You shoot my boy and you won't live to tell it."
The officer left as fast as he could run to his car and speed away. No charges were filed against anyone and GPD denied the officer was ever there despite my neighbors having witnessed the event.
That's the way it was back in the day. The working classes were simply pushed around and there was nothing you could do about it. Had my Daddy not walked out that door when he did I might have been dead, my son left to grow up without ever knowing his father just as many poor children grow up today.
Well today there are things that can be done about it but as Lewis Pitts points out in his article, We, The People, call for police video to be public now, some of the powers that be still want to keep incidents like what happened to me a secret.
After all, there's no law against riding a motorcycle to mom and dad's house. Is there?
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Misguided Assumptions Created Because of Misguided Intentions.
My opinion of Yes-Weekly has elevated. As some of you are aware the debate of police body cameras in Greensboro has been no debate at all. The public wants the videos made public and someone within the City or the Greensboro Police Department wants them kept private, has a history of abusing the video evidence and has to date been making up State laws that never existed.
Well in this week's Yes-Weekly Roch Smith jr writes A better way on police body camera video in Greensboro in which he points out:
But Roch also writes:
I recommend you read all of A better way on police body camera video in Greensboro
where Greensboro's resident expert on what is and isn't public record in North Carolina tells it like it is and tells the City of Greensboro and Greensboro Police Department the smartest path to take.
This public records thing is not a game. It's the key to open and honest government. Roch has been leading the way on this for years in Greensboro, get behind his efforts today.
Well in this week's Yes-Weekly Roch Smith jr writes A better way on police body camera video in Greensboro in which he points out:
"Until recently, GPD claimed that the recordings were part of employees’ personnel files and, therefore, confidential under state law. But state law requires that information in personnel files be retained for 30 years—prohibitively expensive for these videos—so the excuses offered by GPD have recently shifted to say that the videos are records of “criminal investigations,” a category of information that state law does not make explicitly confidential nor public, giving discretion to the custodian of the record whether to release it or not. This discretion is what allows the police, for example, to release surveillance footage of a criminal suspect if they think it might help solve a crime, but they don’t have to—as they will not with body-camera videos."
But Roch also writes:
"Under North Carolina law, when a public record is used in a criminal investigation or for personnel purposes, it does not loose its status as a public record. The record of a speeding ticket doesn’t become confidential just because it is added to an employee’s personnel file. A building permit doesn’t become confidential just because the police use it in a criminal investigation. So reclaiming the original public purpose of these cameras means the police cannot put the videos they record off limits just because they also use them to solve crimes or discipline employees."
I recommend you read all of A better way on police body camera video in Greensboro
where Greensboro's resident expert on what is and isn't public record in North Carolina tells it like it is and tells the City of Greensboro and Greensboro Police Department the smartest path to take.
This public records thing is not a game. It's the key to open and honest government. Roch has been leading the way on this for years in Greensboro, get behind his efforts today.
Monday, March 7, 2016
Police Body Cameras, How Can We Trust Greensboro?
A few days ago Greensboro Mayor Nancy Barakat Vaughan announced she wanted the State of North Carolina to pass new laws that would allow Greensboro Police to release Police Body Camera Video to the public.
While this sounds great the Grasshopper has a history of saying one thing and doing another. For example, when Mayor Vaughan and City Council voted 9-0 to pass disclosure rules for City Council members I went before Council and asked that they take it one step farther and lobby state legislators to make this policy state law. Why? Because by law City Council cannot punish the Mayor or other council members for breaking council rules. Only the State of North Carolina can do that.
Since that time almost every member of City Council has been caught failing to disclose items required my Mayor Vaughan's rules.
In the case of Greensboro Police body cameras we already have the January 2015 instance in which Bulent Bediz was charged with assault on a police officer. Greensboro Police and Greensboro Code Enforcement both claimed to possess video of the incident but both failed to produce any such video for the court.
The News & Fishwrap reported:
No mention of the police body camera. Now how about this comment I left on Councilman Justin Outling's Facebook page promoting the Grasshopper's plan.
That's right, The officer in the photograph of the News & Fishwrap article promoting Mayor Vaughan's plan is the same GPD officer who falsely accused Bulent Bediz of assault on a police officer in Jan 2015, the GPD police body camera poster boy.
I'm all for making police body camera videos part of the public record, I believe most GPD rank and file police officers are in favor of the same because most of them are honest cops doing a very hard job. I just don't trust our current city leaders to manage them correctly.
And to be perfectly honest, my guess is the GPD police body camera poster boy was acting under orders as he had been sent there on behalf of Greensboro Code Enforcement who were illegally removing Mr Bediz's property.
While this sounds great the Grasshopper has a history of saying one thing and doing another. For example, when Mayor Vaughan and City Council voted 9-0 to pass disclosure rules for City Council members I went before Council and asked that they take it one step farther and lobby state legislators to make this policy state law. Why? Because by law City Council cannot punish the Mayor or other council members for breaking council rules. Only the State of North Carolina can do that.
Since that time almost every member of City Council has been caught failing to disclose items required my Mayor Vaughan's rules.
In the case of Greensboro Police body cameras we already have the January 2015 instance in which Bulent Bediz was charged with assault on a police officer. Greensboro Police and Greensboro Code Enforcement both claimed to possess video of the incident but both failed to produce any such video for the court.
The News & Fishwrap reported:
“The officer told the judge ... he tried to remove Bediz from the vehicle to prevent him from driving away in a vehicle he knew was expired,” Neumann said. “The judge apparently felt the officer didn’t have the right to remove him.”
The case was heard by Guilford County District Court Judge Jan Samet.
“Judge Jan Samet did the right thing under the state and federal constitutions,” Bediz’s attorney Seth Cohen said."
No mention of the police body camera. Now how about this comment I left on Councilman Justin Outling's Facebook page promoting the Grasshopper's plan.
That's right, The officer in the photograph of the News & Fishwrap article promoting Mayor Vaughan's plan is the same GPD officer who falsely accused Bulent Bediz of assault on a police officer in Jan 2015, the GPD police body camera poster boy.
I'm all for making police body camera videos part of the public record, I believe most GPD rank and file police officers are in favor of the same because most of them are honest cops doing a very hard job. I just don't trust our current city leaders to manage them correctly.
And to be perfectly honest, my guess is the GPD police body camera poster boy was acting under orders as he had been sent there on behalf of Greensboro Code Enforcement who were illegally removing Mr Bediz's property.
Friday, January 15, 2016
City Council Honors Criminals
According to Jamal Fox the Greensboro City Council is planning to honor the people responsible for this: http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/…/a-homecoming…
Seriously: http://www.ncat.edu/even…/…/01/football-team-recognized.html
I can't even get Marikay Abuzuaiter to speak up concerning the matter.
Seriously: http://www.ncat.edu/even…/…/01/football-team-recognized.html
I can't even get Marikay Abuzuaiter to speak up concerning the matter.
And folks, this isn't just some blogger spouting off at the mouth, Fox8 confirms my story: http://myfox8.com/…/nc-at-student-in-hospital-after-beatin…/
Maybe Tony Wilkins can shed some light?
Maybe Tony Wilkins can shed some light?
Monday, January 11, 2016
Get Ready to Be Branded A Terrorist
Jeff Martin, aka Fec, has gotten the telephone call. He currently writes the blog Under Siege. I've gotten the call as well.
What call is that? The call you get from the Greensboro Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division for the horrible crime of speaking out in public opposition to the actions of the Greensboro City Council and calling on citizens to act.
It's been a while and my memory isn't what it once was but I seem to remember that it was Detective Rob Finch who called me. I think Jeff wrote that it was Kory Flowers who called him but again that was some time ago. All either of us were doing were exercising our rights to free speech but the detectives felt the need to attempt to scare us away.
It didn't work.
I think Jeff is a sociopathic genius and there is nothing I'd love more than to give my life a martyr for a worthy cause like helping Greensboro's poor. Our kinds don't scare easily. But I could be wrong about Jeff as I've only met him a few times and only really know him from his writing.
You see, dying a martyr would make me believe I finally accomplished something good. No illusions of grandeur, no getting my name in the history books but perhaps a handful of people would come to understand how important it is to me to make this world a better place that I am willing to die to make it so. And maybe those few people would take up the model I gave them recently and make a difference.
But don't think it will be easy.
Because if you know me Kory Flowers and Rob Finch probably already know you and they are ready, willing and able to brand you as one of Greensboro's Sovereign Citizens even if you're not.
The fact is: I see the Sovereign Citizen movement as being way out on the fringe. The talk of Billy Jones and BILLY JONES being 2 different legal entities seems like pure hogwash to me. It's as if some of these "Sovereign Citizens" are just joining the movement so they can get out of paying their bills and taxes. Kinda like Libertarians on political brain steroids. Me, Me, Me, Mine, Mine, Mine! Like children afraid to share.
If most of the "Sovereign Citizens" we read about in the media weren't committing other, more violent crimes they wouldn't be of any real concern but have you or anyone you know of heard of a huge Sovereign Citizen movement in and around Greensboro? The local media has never bothered to report it. While the Southern Poverty Law Center says that a lot of African-Americans are Sovereign Citizens there is no evidence to show that Greensboro has a big issue with this. Also, from the SPLC:
It looks as if this is mostly a paperwork issue. Mostly a Federal issue. So why is the News & Record reporting:
Because of this?
Why in the hell is the Greensboro Police Department training FBI officers when we never have enough cops on our streets. Do these guys get to make up their own job descriptions?
So if you are a tax protester, if you speak out against the United States Government or even if you speak out against the City of Greensboro's economic development, wage or racial policies you are subject to be deemed a terrorist. Anything they don't like and you are deemed to be a terrorist.
It wasn't the liberals we had to fear. It wasn't the Conservatives we had to fear. It was the Fascists. And the FASCISTS are now in control just like I told you they would be.
What call is that? The call you get from the Greensboro Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division for the horrible crime of speaking out in public opposition to the actions of the Greensboro City Council and calling on citizens to act.
It's been a while and my memory isn't what it once was but I seem to remember that it was Detective Rob Finch who called me. I think Jeff wrote that it was Kory Flowers who called him but again that was some time ago. All either of us were doing were exercising our rights to free speech but the detectives felt the need to attempt to scare us away.
It didn't work.
I think Jeff is a sociopathic genius and there is nothing I'd love more than to give my life a martyr for a worthy cause like helping Greensboro's poor. Our kinds don't scare easily. But I could be wrong about Jeff as I've only met him a few times and only really know him from his writing.
You see, dying a martyr would make me believe I finally accomplished something good. No illusions of grandeur, no getting my name in the history books but perhaps a handful of people would come to understand how important it is to me to make this world a better place that I am willing to die to make it so. And maybe those few people would take up the model I gave them recently and make a difference.
But don't think it will be easy.
Because if you know me Kory Flowers and Rob Finch probably already know you and they are ready, willing and able to brand you as one of Greensboro's Sovereign Citizens even if you're not.
The fact is: I see the Sovereign Citizen movement as being way out on the fringe. The talk of Billy Jones and BILLY JONES being 2 different legal entities seems like pure hogwash to me. It's as if some of these "Sovereign Citizens" are just joining the movement so they can get out of paying their bills and taxes. Kinda like Libertarians on political brain steroids. Me, Me, Me, Mine, Mine, Mine! Like children afraid to share.
If most of the "Sovereign Citizens" we read about in the media weren't committing other, more violent crimes they wouldn't be of any real concern but have you or anyone you know of heard of a huge Sovereign Citizen movement in and around Greensboro? The local media has never bothered to report it. While the Southern Poverty Law Center says that a lot of African-Americans are Sovereign Citizens there is no evidence to show that Greensboro has a big issue with this. Also, from the SPLC:
"The weapon of choice for sovereign citizens is paper. A simple traffic violation or pet-licensing case can end up provoking dozens of court filings containing hundreds of pages of pseudo-legal nonsense. For example, a sovereign was involved in 2010 in a protracted legal battle over having to pay a dog-licensing fee. She filed 10 sovereign documents in court over a two-month period and then declared victory when the harried prosecutor decided to drop the case. The battle was fought over a three-year dog license that in Pinellas County, Fla., where the sovereign lives, costs just $20. Tax cases are even worse. Sovereign filings in such legal battles can quickly exceed a thousand pages. While a normal criminal case docket might have 60 or 70 entries, many involving sovereigns have as many as 1,200. The courts are struggling to keep up, and judges, prosecutors and public defenders are being swamped."
It looks as if this is mostly a paperwork issue. Mostly a Federal issue. So why is the News & Record reporting:
"Greensboro police officers Kory Flowers and Rob Finch are part of that group with one distinction: When law enforcement and journalists go looking for experts, it’s likely one or both of these local men are on the shortlist to call."
Because of this?
"Both have spent the past eight years studying groups who describe themselves “sovereigns,” men and women the FBI describes as domestic terrorists."
Why in the hell is the Greensboro Police Department training FBI officers when we never have enough cops on our streets. Do these guys get to make up their own job descriptions?
So if you are a tax protester, if you speak out against the United States Government or even if you speak out against the City of Greensboro's economic development, wage or racial policies you are subject to be deemed a terrorist. Anything they don't like and you are deemed to be a terrorist.
It wasn't the liberals we had to fear. It wasn't the Conservatives we had to fear. It was the Fascists. And the FASCISTS are now in control just like I told you they would be.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
GPD: Ignore At Your Own Risk
On Wednesday I posted Bait Cars Put City And Children At Risk. My concern was that children too young to drive might steal these bait cars and possibly kill themselves or others before police can stop them.
District County School Board Candidate Matt Stafford and others criticized me calling my thoughts foolish and hypothetical but in this Good Morning America story from 2012 Car Thief, 11, Takes Police 'Bait Car' for Joyride we learn that my hypothesis is in-fact quite plausible:
And this:
What's that? The bait cars aren't under constant live surveillance? Apparently not. People can steal bait cars and get away with it? Who knew? Evidently busy police officers have more important things to take care of first like stopping bank robbers and chasing down actual murderers. After all, GPD, like most police departments, remains always short handed and under funded.
Too bad the City finally filled in the rock quarry on the corner of Lombardy and Phillips Avenue or I know when those bait cars would be. Those black kids in Claremont Courts would see it as no more than just a game to drive them across the street into the quarry just as we redneck white boys from Bessemer would have done when we were playing along Phillips Avenue all those years ago. Just as soon as we figured out they were bait cars someone would have taken the dare. After all, boys will be boys. Isn't that right, Flushy?
Perhaps Nationwide Insurance, who provided the bait cars to the Greensboro Police Department, will cover the cost of any law suits should anyone be injured by their bait cars but can Nationwide Insurance replace dead children? Can the City of Greensboro.
Think police can stop the bait cars before they crash? Bait car stolen, crashes into several things in St. Paul. Guess not. Let's hope the thief wasn't a child.
Now Nationwide could have provided Greensboro with bait cars that don't move and lock the thieves inside like their doing in Britain but what's the fun in that? American cops love the thrill of a high speed chase.
Of course you haven't really stolen the car until you drive it so I guess when the real intention is to show an increase in the number of car thieves prosecuted bait cars that don't move wouldn't work so well. After all, there's no money in preventing crime, only in prosecuting crime can police departments take in more income. If we had zero crime City Council would lay off all our cops.
So has anyone ever been killed by someone driving a bait car? From Wrongful death lawsuit filed over bait car accident death of Texas woman:
Looks like Nationwide didn't pick up the tab on that one. That's not the only one. And as for being able to turn the car off from somewhere in headquarters:
Had it been a child the settlement would have been a multi-million dollar amount.
And in Albuquerque Sued Over Bait Car Crash they write:
Hell fire, here in Greensboro, police are parking the bait cars in residential neighborhoods.
The Greensboro City Council and GPD can continue to ignore my warnings if they wish but make no doubt I e-mail these post to them so they have been informed. So if and when there is such an incident in Greensboro they will not be able to claim ignorance and attournys for the plaintiffs will use these posts and my e-mails to significantly increase the dollar amounts of the lawsuits the City of Greensboro must pay.
And with that the City's insurance rates go up and insurance companies like Nationwide who provided Greensboro with the bait cars, cash in once again.
You see, Folks, that's how Fascism works.
District County School Board Candidate Matt Stafford and others criticized me calling my thoughts foolish and hypothetical but in this Good Morning America story from 2012 Car Thief, 11, Takes Police 'Bait Car' for Joyride we learn that my hypothesis is in-fact quite plausible:
"I think myself, along with all of the other officers who were on the scene, were absolutely shocked that children this young could take the steps to actually steal a vehicle, to commit a felony," Sgt. Ferris Simmons told ABC News."
And this:
"The party was soon over for the three boys, whose faces were blurred in the video by police because they are minors, when one thinks he spots a police officer.
"Quiet," one says as they all crouch down in the car to avoid being seen.
"Slow down," says another.
Police tracked down the boy driver, whom police are not identifying because he is a minor, but only after two false starts.
The vehicle's GPS system twice notified police that the car was moving, but both times police tracked down the car they only found children playing outside.
It was only after police reviewed the surveillance video that they realized an 11-year-old was behind the wheel."
What's that? The bait cars aren't under constant live surveillance? Apparently not. People can steal bait cars and get away with it? Who knew? Evidently busy police officers have more important things to take care of first like stopping bank robbers and chasing down actual murderers. After all, GPD, like most police departments, remains always short handed and under funded.
Too bad the City finally filled in the rock quarry on the corner of Lombardy and Phillips Avenue or I know when those bait cars would be. Those black kids in Claremont Courts would see it as no more than just a game to drive them across the street into the quarry just as we redneck white boys from Bessemer would have done when we were playing along Phillips Avenue all those years ago. Just as soon as we figured out they were bait cars someone would have taken the dare. After all, boys will be boys. Isn't that right, Flushy?
Perhaps Nationwide Insurance, who provided the bait cars to the Greensboro Police Department, will cover the cost of any law suits should anyone be injured by their bait cars but can Nationwide Insurance replace dead children? Can the City of Greensboro.
Think police can stop the bait cars before they crash? Bait car stolen, crashes into several things in St. Paul. Guess not. Let's hope the thief wasn't a child.
Now Nationwide could have provided Greensboro with bait cars that don't move and lock the thieves inside like their doing in Britain but what's the fun in that? American cops love the thrill of a high speed chase.
Of course you haven't really stolen the car until you drive it so I guess when the real intention is to show an increase in the number of car thieves prosecuted bait cars that don't move wouldn't work so well. After all, there's no money in preventing crime, only in prosecuting crime can police departments take in more income. If we had zero crime City Council would lay off all our cops.
So has anyone ever been killed by someone driving a bait car? From Wrongful death lawsuit filed over bait car accident death of Texas woman:
"A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the family of a Texas woman whose vehicle was struck by a police bait car.
"Members of the Dallas city council have been briefed on the family’s Texas wrongful death lawsuit. The council will vote on Wednesday on whether to authorize a proposed settlement of $245,000."
Looks like Nationwide didn't pick up the tab on that one. That's not the only one. And as for being able to turn the car off from somewhere in headquarters:
"The police, however, were too late. Ramirez slammed into Reyes at 75 mph, killing her."
Had it been a child the settlement would have been a multi-million dollar amount.
And in Albuquerque Sued Over Bait Car Crash they write:
"According to the homeowner, part of the problem was that the bait car was allowed to enter into a residential neighborhood."
Hell fire, here in Greensboro, police are parking the bait cars in residential neighborhoods.
The Greensboro City Council and GPD can continue to ignore my warnings if they wish but make no doubt I e-mail these post to them so they have been informed. So if and when there is such an incident in Greensboro they will not be able to claim ignorance and attournys for the plaintiffs will use these posts and my e-mails to significantly increase the dollar amounts of the lawsuits the City of Greensboro must pay.
And with that the City's insurance rates go up and insurance companies like Nationwide who provided Greensboro with the bait cars, cash in once again.
You see, Folks, that's how Fascism works.
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Bait Cars Put City And Children At Risk
I'm sure some people thought it a good idea and without a doubt it will catch more criminals but who else will they catch?
Neighbors in Claremont Courts are telling me bait cars have been left in their community keys in the switch and engines running. So what happens when say a 7 year old child decides he or she wants to take his or her first driving lesson-- alone?
I'm e-mailing this post to Chief Wayne Scott, Police Attorney Jim Clark, City Attorney Tom Carruthers, City Manager Jim Westmoreland, Mayor Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan and the entire Greensboro City Council as well as the local media expecting an immediate response.
Neighbors in Claremont Courts are telling me bait cars have been left in their community keys in the switch and engines running. So what happens when say a 7 year old child decides he or she wants to take his or her first driving lesson-- alone?
I'm e-mailing this post to Chief Wayne Scott, Police Attorney Jim Clark, City Attorney Tom Carruthers, City Manager Jim Westmoreland, Mayor Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan and the entire Greensboro City Council as well as the local media expecting an immediate response.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Does James Hinson Still Run His Group Homes
In 2012 then Greensboro City Councilwoman Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan supposedly addressed the illegal operation and conflicts of interest of Greensboro Police Captain James Hinson. Three years later despite committing offenses that should have led to Captain Hinson's dismissal, he has since been promoted to Assistant Chief of Police.
What happened? What was done about it? And how did Hinson manage to get promoted when he should have been dismissed?
What happened? What was done about it? And how did Hinson manage to get promoted when he should have been dismissed?
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