Saturday, May 7, 2016

FACEBOOK DEMOCRATS

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Tuesday, May 12, 2015

SHERIFF &POLICE CRYBABIES

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http://truthvoice.com/2015/03/colorado-sheriffs-say-marijuana-legalization-should-be-overturned-because-it-makes-them-uncomfortable/
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Colorado Sheriffs Say Marijuana Legalization Should Be Overturned Because It Makes Them Uncomfortable

Today six Colorado sheriffs filed a federal lawsuit that seeks to reverse marijuana legalization in their state, which they say should be overturned because it makes them uncomfortable. Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith and his counterparts in five other counties say Amendment 64, the marijuana legalization measure that is now part of Colorado’s constitution, has made their jobs harder by creating a conflict between state and federal law.
“When these Colorado Sheriffs encounter marijuana while performing their duties,” theircomplaint says, “each is placed in the position of having to choose between violating his oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and violating his oath to uphold the Colorado Constitution.” This supposed dilemma arises from Smith et al.’s mistaken assumption that they have an obligation to help the federal government enforce its ban on marijuana.
According to the Supreme Court’s extremely generous reading of the power to regulate interstate commerce, Congress has the authority to ban cultivation, possession, and distribution of marijuana, even when those activities are permitted under state law and do not cross state lines (in fact, even when they are confined entirely to the privacy of someone’s home). The federal government therefore may continue to enforce marijuana prohibition in Colorado.
But contrary to what the sheriffs seem to think, that does not mean they are required to lend a hand, notwithstanding the Supremacy Clause, which makes valid acts of Congress “the supreme law of the land.” Under our federalist system, Congress has no authority to dragoon state and local officials into enforcing its laws—a point the Court made clear in Printz v. United States, a 1997 case involving federally mandated background checks for gun buyers.
Colorado SheriffsUnder the “anti-commandeering principle” that the Court applied inPrintz, requiring local cops to enforce the federal ban on marijuana would be clearly unconstitutional. So when a Colorado cop encounters someone 21 or older with an ounce or less of marijuana (the limit set by state law) and does not confiscate it as contraband under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), he is not violating his oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
Likewise if he finds six or fewer plants in someone’s home and leaves them there or if he passes a state-licensed pot shop and does not try to shut it down.
Similarly, the U.S. Constitution does not require state legislators to mimic federal law by punishing everything Congress decides to treat as a crime. Yet Smith et al. argue that eliminating state penalties for marijuana-related activities violates the CSA and therefore the Supremacy Clause. They are asking the U.S. District Court in Colorado to overturn all the sections of Amendment 64 that say specified activities involving marijuana—including possession and home cultivation as well as commercial production and distribution by state-licensed businesses—”are not unlawful and shall not be an offense under Colorado law.”
To put it another way, the sheriffs want a federal court order requiring Colorado to recriminalize these activities and start busting cannabis consumers, growers, and retailers again. They say the U.S. Constitution requires Colorado to treat those people as criminals, regardless of what Colorado voters or legislators want.
That position cannot be reconciled with the 10th Amendment, which says “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” Writing state criminal laws is not a power that the Constitution delegates to the federal government.
Smith et al., whose lawsuit is joined by four sheriffs from Nebraska and Kansas who also were offended by Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana, concede that the CSA does not override all state drug policy choices. “Under 21 U.S.C. § 903,” they note, “the CSA shall not ‘be construed’ to ‘occupy the field’ in which the CSA operates ‘to the exclusion of any [s]tate law on the same subject matter which would otherwise be within’ the state’s authority.
Rather, Section 903 provides that state laws are preempted only when ‘a positive conflict’ exists between a provision of the CSA and a state law’ so that the two cannot consistently stand together.” But the sheriffs claim Amendment 64 creates such a conflict. “The enforcement of the CSA violates Colorado law,” they say, “and conversely adherence to Colorado law violates the CSA.”
That is clearly not true for most of the provisions that Smith et al. are challenging. If Colorado cops stop arresting pot smokers, the pot smokers are violating the CSA, but the cops are not. Likewise with people who grow and transfer marijuana, whether money changes hands or not. They are violating federal law, but the police officers who refrain from dragging them away in handcuffs are not. Conversely, a federal agent who arrests a cannabis grower, seller, or consumer for violating the CSA is not doing anything forbidden by Colorado law.
The sheriffs say Amendment 64 “in some cases” not only allows but “requir[es]” the cultivation and distribution of marijuana. That would indeed be a positive conflict, since it would be impossible to obey both state and federal law. But unless I missed it, the complaint do not cite any actual examples of state-mandated CSA violations.
The sheriffs’ strongest argument echoes the central claim of Nebraska and Oklahoma’s anti-legalization lawsuit: that Colorado’s marijuana regulations “embed state and local government actors with private actors in a state-sanctioned and state-supervised industry which is intended to, and does, cultivate, package, and distribute marijuana for commercial and private possession and use in violation of the CSA.” In other words, the state’s stamp of approval for cannabusinesses goes beyond declining to punish marijuana offenses by actively promoting them.
That is one way of looking at it. Alternatively, you could say a marijuana license merely certifies that the holder has met the criteria for escaping punishment under state law. It does not make him immune to punishment under the CSA, and it does not require him to violate that statute.
Suppose Colorado took this criticism to heart and stopped regulating the marijuana industry. Anyone would be free to grow or sell marijuana without having to seek the state’s blessing. Libertarians might welcome that outcome, but I doubt the sheriffs would. In any case, the existence of state regulations does nothing to strengthen the sheriffs’ argument that they have suffered a personal injury justifying a lawsuit because they are not allowed to bust pot smokers anymore.
From: http://reason.com/blog/2015/03/05/colorado-sheriffs-say-marijuana-legaliza
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Monday, January 26, 2015

SHERIFF GLADIEUX- NS INTERVIEW

http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20150125/NEWS/150129827/1012/LOCAL

Fort Report: Interview with Dave Gladieux

Sunday, January 25, 2015 - 12:01 am
This week’s show features Allen County Sheriff Dave Gladieux, who will discuss Operations at the county jail, law enforcement funding and potential changes to the department. The episode will premiere at 5:30 p.m. Saturday on Comcast Channel 57 and FiOS Channel 27 and later at www.news-sentinel.com.

Friday, January 23, 2015

INDY COPS TO CARRY NARCAN- OD FIRST AID DRUG

http://wane.com/2015/01/23/indianapolis-police-expanding-use-of-anti-overdose-drug/

Indianapolis police expanding use of anti-overdose drug

A kit with naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan, is displayed at the South Jersey AIDS Alliance in Atlantic City, N.J. on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014. An overdose of opiates essentially makes the body forget to breathe. Naloxone works by blocking the brain receptors that opiates latch onto and helping the body "remember" to take in air. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
A kit with naloxone, also known by its brand name Narcan, is displayed at the South Jersey AIDS Alliance in Atlantic City, N.J. on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014. An overdose of opiates essentially makes the body forget to breathe. Naloxone works by blocking the brain receptors that opiates latch onto and helping the body "remember" to take in air. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has announced an expansion of its efforts to equip officers with a drug that can reverse heroin overdoses.
Dozens more officers were trained and began carrying the anti-overdose drug Narcan this week. The program launched nine months ago in the Southwest District of Indianapolis and is now expanding into the East District.
The department eventually hopes to expand the program to all of its officers. A department spokesman says officers in the Southeast District should be trained by the end of March.
Officers participating in the pilot program administered Narcan 46 times between April and December. Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services used the drug more than 1,000 times last year.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Monday, January 19, 2015

MORE PRISONS, MORE PRISONERS- GOV PENCE

http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20150119/NEWS/150119680/1012/LOCAL

HELP THROW A WRENCH INT GOVERNOR PENCES PRISON PRIVATIZATION; POLICE STATE  SCHEMES. -  WHY SURE- LETS LOCK UP MORE PEOPLE; AND MAKE MORE LAWS FOR MORE POLICE TO LOCK UP MORE PEOPLE..
HELP TURN INDIANA INTO NORTH KOREA..
SWELL.

Pence's $51M prison expansion proposal met by skepticism

Monday, January 19, 2015 - 8:21 am
INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Mike Pence's proposal for expanding two state prisons is drawing skepticism from some legislative leaders as it comes just months after Indiana's criminal sentencing laws changed in part to reduce the need for more prison space.
An alternative plan with bipartisan support in the Indiana House calls for directing $50 million more a year toward counties for work release and other local programs as they are expected to more low-level offenders under the sentencing overhaul.
Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said increased funding for local programs is "critical" under the sentencing revisions that went into effect in July.
As for the inmate population, Bosma questioned whether it would grow as quickly as the state Department of Correction is projecting — from about 29,000 in 2013 to about 31,500 in 2019. That growth is why Pence administration budget officials say maximum-security expansions are needed to the tune of $51 million at the Miami Correctional Facility near Peru and the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility near Sullivan.
"We are doing the greatly enhanced community corrections, in part because it is the right thing to do, but in part to avoid building another prison," Bosma said. "We aren't going to do both is my prediction."
Provisions of the overhaul require that most inmates serve at least 75 percent of their sentences, which was aimed at giving crime victims and others more certainty about how much time the convicted will spend in prison. Previous law allowed most inmates to be released after serving half their sentence — or less — if they stayed out of trouble while behind bars.
Another major shift aims have more people convicted of lower-level property or drug crimes spend time in intensive local probation, work-release or addiction-treatment programs, in hopes that will help prevent them from becoming career criminals.
Department of Correction spokesman Doug Garrison said lower-level offenders aren't the ones who would be going into the new maximum-security cell houses planned at the two prisons. The agency's proposal calls for spending about $33 million on three new Wabash Valley cell houses, which would add 800 beds, and about $18 million for two new cell houses at the Miami prison, giving it 512 additional beds.
"We probably get 100 new lengthy, lengthy sentence guys every year and a comparable number don't leave," he said. "Our max security population is going up and that's why we have to build housing units for them."
Garrison said it is difficult to know the impact of the new sentencing guidelines yet.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Greg Steuerwald, who was a leading sponsor of the sentencing overhaul plan, said he wanted to see more data on how judges are imposing sentences under the new rules before deciding whether to support more prison construction.
Steuerwald, R-Avon, said the proposal to support community corrections and other local programs with $50 million a year in state grants was an important step toward making the overhaul work. That bill is being co-sponsored by both House floor leaders — Republican Jud McMillin of Brookville and Democrat Linda Lawson of Hammond.
Sen. Karen Tallian, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she thought it was premature for the Pence administration to push a prison expansion while not seeking money for community corrections, probation officers and substance abuse treatment programs
"One of the things we're trying to do is keep people out of prison," said Tallian, D-Portage. "They have not shown that all those new prison beds are for violent offenders. I think they need to justify their figures."

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

BOOT CAMP MINIMUM SECURITY JAIL

http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/indiana/Youth-boot-camp-to-remain-open-4333771
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January 07, 2015 1:01 AM

Youth boot camp to remain open

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS – A boot camp for juvenile offenders in northwestern Indiana that was targeted for closure will remain open.
Gov. Mike Pence said Tuesday that his new state budget proposal to legislators will include maintaining current funding for Camp Summit in LaPorte.
The Department of Correction had planned to close the paramilitary-style boot camp in October and transfer the 72 boys housed there to community-based programs or other state facilities. That move was put on hold after protests from area lawmakers and other supporters of the camp.
Pence said he appreciated the department’s effort to save money but was swayed by testimonials about the camp’s success.
Indiana House Democratic leader Scott Pelath had called the closing decision a “misalignment of priorities” and unnecessary with a $2 billion state surplus.

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Friday, January 2, 2015

THERES A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN. BUT ITS NOT ROACH

VIDEO LINK:  http://wane.com/2015/01/01/new-sheriff-ready-to-tackle-projects/



New sheriff ready to tackle projects

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE)  Allen County’s new sheriff has already made some administrative changes and has plans for a new K9 training center. David Gladieux said his biggest challenge will have to do with managing the department’s budget.
He talked with NewsChannel 15 as he prepared to take on his new role.
Gladieux started with the Allen County Sheriff’s Department in 1985 as a civilian confinement officer at the jail. Over the years, he served as a dispatcher, worked in the K9 division and as a SWAT member, and became an arson investigator.
In 2007 Sheriff Fries promoted Gladieux to chief deputy. He filled that role until this week, when he was sworn in as Allen County’s 50th Sheriff.
His career in law enforcement was sparked at a young age. His father and his uncle were both Indiana State Troopers. His sister is currently a Fort Wayne police officer.
As Gladieux begins his leadership of the department, he’s already set some changes in motion by bringing back deputy chief positions.
“They are currently captains,” explained Gladieux. “There’s a captain that oversees half the department and there’s a captain that oversees the other half, the administrative and the operational. I’m going to promote them up to deputy chiefs. They’re gonna have a little more responsibility, especially on the administrative side. I’m tacking on the warrants and the civil division. The sexual assault registry people are gonna be under his watch as well. Probably one of the biggest changes – I’m not going to micromanage my guys. I feel these guys are making decent salaries at the top and they need to be made to do their jobs. I’ve explained that to them. And that I’m going to give them open reigns to run their respective divisions and if they make a decision that I don’t agree with, then we’ll talk about it.”
The new sheriff would also like to start a work crew made up of jail inmates.
“I think it’s important to get these inmates out of that jail and get them truly paying their debt to society, if you will. Whether it’s cleaning up vacant lots in downtown Fort Wayne to make it look better, to cutting grass out at our range, to picking up brass, what have you. I just think they spend an awful lot of time sitting around watching tv and reading the newspaper and figuring out how to sue me,” Gladieux chuckled. “So I think I would really like to have a good working relationship with the judges and actually have it part of a sentence, especially with the new sentencing reform where the class D felons are going to be staying at home rather than going down to the DOC [Department of Corrections.] I think this is a perfect opportunity to start that program and if they were not going to the DOC maybe they could at least get sentenced to the sheriff’s work crew. And it’s a good opportunity for them to maybe learn something instead of sitting there sucking up all the community’s tax dollars.”
Speaking of tax dollars, Sheriff Gladieux expects the budget to be his biggest challenge.
“I’m also going to maybe take a different approach when it comes to funding. Say, for instance, we need a K9 training academy. The one we have now is old, dilapidated, it’s not even insulated. It’s in poor condition and that’s probably one of the top things I want to do is get a new K9 training site. We have the land, it’s paid for – out there by Adams Center and Paulding – by our range,” said Gladieux. “My idea would be – you know, the sheriff has a commissary account. So maybe I could approach the commissioners and the council and say, ‘Look, I’ll put X toward this project, would you be willing to match me?’ And I think that’s a better approach than going to them and saying, ‘Hey, I need this. Will you pay for it?’ Northeast Indiana needs a place like that. It’s not to get confused with the city’s Public Safety Academy because that’s all indoor. It’s more of a classroom setting. Ours is all outdoor.”
In addition to managing the department’s money, Gladieux said he plans to spend time fostering good relationships with neighboring law enforcement agencies and with the public.
“We have worked really hard for years and years and I’ve worked for some great sheriffs and every sheriff that I’ve worked for took pride in our reputation in the community. And that’s important to me as well. I know it is with Sheriff Fries and it’s something I plan on continuing,” he said. “I think it’s real important to have good communication with the other agencies in your jurisdiction. It’s very important. With regards to the city of Fort Wayne, I get along great with Rusty [York, the city’s Public Safety Director] and with [Fort Wayne Police Chief] Garry Hamilton and the mayor himself. And you know, the mayor’s a Democrat and I’m a Republican, but at the end of the day, we have jobs to do and I really don’t play that whole R and D thing.”
Considering recent events in Ferguson, Missouri and New York, Sheriff Gladieux said the department is already looking into providing officers with body cameras. “Of course, it’s like anything else. It just comes down to dollars and cents. Probably the biggest thing that I would want the community to understand is it’s not the cure-all. It’s not going to solve everything and it certainly isn’t going to prevent things from happening. But if there’s a chance that it can provide some evidence that sides with the officer when he’s accused of doing wrong, then I’m all for it. And if it happens once, then it’s good. It’s paid for itself.”
Gladieux now oversees about 350 people, including sworn deputies, civilian confinement officers, reserve officers, and administrative staff. He said he hopes to take advantage of their collective experience and training.
“Just because I’ve got the office of sheriff doesn’t make me the know-it-all of everything. I’m gonna rely on people around me. Good people. Educated people who’ve been in the business as long as I have. And I think two heads are better than one. Many heads are better than one. So kind of a group effort. We’re gonna have a nice team.”