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Detroit Police Chief: Concealed Weapons Permits Save Lives

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Photo Credit: Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News

Photo Credit: Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News

Detroit— If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday.

Urban police chiefs are typically in favor of gun control or reluctant to discuss the issue, but Craig on Thursday was candid about how he’s changed his mind.

“When we look at the good community members who have concealed weapons permits, the likelihood they’ll shoot is based on a lack of confidence in this Police Department,” Craig said at a press conference at police headquarters, adding that he thinks more Detroit citizens feel safer, thanks in part to a 7 percent drop in violent crime in 2013.

Craig said he started believing that legal gun owners can deter crime when he became police chief in Portland, Maine, in 2009.

“Coming from California (Craig was on the Los Angeles police force for 28 years), where it takes an act of Congress to get a concealed weapon permit, I got to Maine, where they give out lots of CCWs (carrying concealed weapon permits), and I had a stack of CCW permits I was denying; that was my orientation.

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Alaska Cop Sexted 12-Year-Old Girl While Drunk on Duty

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Photo Credit: PRESSUREUA/GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Photo Credit: PRESSUREUA/GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

A small town Alaska cop sexted a 12-year-old girl repeatedly during a drunken, on-duty bender, authorities say.

Leon Outwater, 21, sent 20 messages from his work cell phone before the girl’s mother caught on and called Alaska state police, troopers said.

“He was sending the text messages to her, and then deleting them,” state police spokeswoman Beth Ipsen told the Daily News.

The calls took place over a 24-hour period in November in the tiny village of Kobuk in northwestern Alaska, authorities said.

“I was drunk,” Outwater, 21, told troopers, according to court documents obtained by the Anchorage Daily News.

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Driver Shot Dragging Chicago-Area Police Officer

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Photo Credit: AP/Chicago Sun-Times, Frank VaisvilasA suburban Chicago police officer was released from a hospital Friday after being dragged by a car driven by fleeing Thanksgiving Day shoplifting suspects, one of whom was charged with attempted murder.

Another police officer fired at the 52-year-old driver, who remained hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his arm following the Thursday night incident at a Kohl’s department store in Romeoville, the Romeoville Police Department said in a statement. The suburb is about 30 miles southwest of Chicago.

The store reported suspected shoplifters to police just after 10 p.m. Thursday. As a patrol car approached the store, one suspect bolted out of a door, jumped into a waiting car and closed the door on the pursuing officer’s arm. The driver then drove off — hauling the officer with him.

“The officer was dragged quite some distance,” Romeoville Police Chief Mark Turvey said at a news conference.

Another officer repeatedly yelled at the driver to halt, then fired three or four shots, striking the driver with one bullet in the left arm and forcing him to stop, police said. The officer who became stuck in the car door injured his right shoulder.

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Drivers Stopped at Police Roadblock Asked for Saliva, Blood (+video)

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Photo Credit: Newsbie Pix/flickrSome drivers along a busy Fort Worth street on Friday were stopped at a police roadblock and directed into a parking lot, where they were asked by federal contractors for samples of their breath, saliva and even blood.

It was part of a government research study aimed at determining the number of drunken or drug-impaired drivers.

“It just doesn’t seem right that you can be forced off the road when you’re not doing anything wrong,” said Kim Cope, who said she was on her lunch break when she was forced to pull over at the roadblock on Beach Street in North Fort Worth.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is spending $7.9 million on the survey over three years, said participation was “100 percent voluntary” and anonymous.

But Cope said it didn’t feel voluntary to her — despite signs saying it was.

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NYPD Police Commissioner: Stop-and-Frisk ‘Saving Lives’

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Photo Credit: Sean MacEnteeStatistics show stop-and-frisk policies used by the New York Police Department help reduce crime and save lives, NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Tuesday.

“It’s important to emphasize the fact that what’s going on in New York is saving lives — significant number of lives,” Kelly, who is almost certain to be leaving his job, told “Fox & Friends.”

Kelly pointed to a drop of over 50 percent in the murder rate in New York City since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office nearly 12 years ago. In addition, numbers show shooting incidents down nearly 22 percent, and robbery has dropped 5.4 percent.

“If you look at the 11 years and nine months that Mayor Bloomberg served . . . compared to 11 years and nine months before mayor took office, (there are) 9,172 fewer murders. That is a remarkable number. Well over a 50 percent reduction,” he said.

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New Mexico Man Claims He Was Anally Probed 8 Times Following Traffic Stop

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Photo Credit: Joe Raedle/GettyA New Mexico man claims he was anally probed several times by police and medical officials following a traffic stop.

The victim, David Eckert, claims in a federal lawsuit that officers from the Deming Police Department pulled him over after he failed to make a complete stop at a stop sign outside a Walmart this past January.

When Eckert got out of his car, officers indicated that they believed he was in possession of drugs – in his anal cavity.

“They say when he stepped out of his car he was standing in a manner that looked as if he was clinching his buttocks,” Shannon Kennedy, Eckert’s attorney, told KOB-TV.

A judge granted a search warrant to perform an anal cavity search on Eckert shortly after he was taken into custody. KOB reports that a doctor refused to perform the anal cavity search at a Deming emergency room, saying it was “unethical.” Eckert was then transported to Gila Regional Medical Center, where his alleged trauma began.

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Timeline: Decision to Shoot Boy Made in 10 Seconds

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Photo Credit: Conner Jay/APThat’s how much time passed after a California sheriff’s deputy reported a suspicious person to dispatch then called back to say shots had been fired.

The shots killed 13-year-old Andy Lopez on Tuesday afternoon in a blue-collar neighborhood in Santa Rosa. Police say Lopez was carrying a pellet gun that looked like an AK-47 assault rifle.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced late Friday that it is conducting its own investigation of the shooting, which has outraged many local residents who are demanding to know whether the shooting was justified.

More than 100 angry middle and high school students walked to City Hall on Friday, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported. Hundreds of people protested earlier in the week.

City police and the Sonoma County district attorney’s office are also investigating.

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Police Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed UC Davis Protesters Awarded $38,000 Settlement (+video)

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Photo Credit: Wayne Tilcock, The Davis EnterpriseA former University of California-Davis police officer made famous after being filmed pepper-spraying seated activists during a Nov. 2011 protest has been awarded a $38,059 workers’ compensation settlement, The Guardian reports.

John Pike, a 40-year-old former lieutenant on the university police force, claimed he suffered from depression and anxiety after receiving death threats following the incident.

A judge approved the settlement between Pike and the university on Oct. 16, according to KCRA.

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Government Watchdog Warns about Menu Police

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Photo Credit: WNDA government watchdog organization on Thursday warned about the new menu police that could soon sweep the nation – and the legal liabilities that could be presented to food service operations from public schools to college cafeterias and others.

Under the resolution of a dispute that involved Lesley University in Massachusetts, according to a report from officials at the Washington watchdog Judicial Watch, food allergies have to be treated as a disability, and provisions made to accommodate those with that “disability.”

According to a settlement document cited by Judicial Watch, “Food allergies may constitute a disability under the [Americans with Disabilities Act]. .. Individuals with food allergies may have an autoimmune response to certain foods, the symptoms of which may include difficulty swallowing and breathing, asthma and anaphylaxis.”

Commented Judicial Watch, “Sounds pretty dramatic, but the food industry is now fearful of the widespread consequences of this decree. In fact, it leaves all facilities that serve food – schools and restaurants – exposed to legal challenges if they don’t accommodate people with food allergies.”

The fight over the college’s food services actually happened late in 2012.

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Riverside Cop Tricks Autistic Teen into Buying Pot (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube “We felt like our family was totally violated by the sheriff’s department and the school district,” says Doug and Catherine Snodgrass of Temecula, California. Last December their 17-year-old autistic high school son was arrested after twice buying marijuana for an undercover Riverside county police officer.

The undercover operation, titled “Operation Glass House,” spanned a few months and included undercover officers in three area high schools: Chaparral, Temecula Valley, and Rancho Vista Continuation. The officers posed as regular high school students and would ask other students for drugs. Twenty-two students were arrested – the majority of them are reported to be special needs students like the Snodgrass’ son.

Their son, who wished to remain unnamed, is noticeably handicapped and has been diagnosed with autism as well as bipolar disorder, Tourettes, and several anxiety disorders…

His new friend, who went under the name of Daniel Briggs, was known as “Deputy Dan” to many students because it was so apparent to them that he was an undercover officer. However, to their son, whose disabilities make it hard for him to gauge social cues, Dan was his only real friend.

Dan reportedly sent 60 text messages to their son begging for drugs. According to his parents, the pressure to buy drugs was too much for the autistic teen who began physically harming himself.

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