Tag: Law Enforcement

Dispatchers answer man’s repeated 911 calls with music to his ears

Reported by Deseret News on December 17, 2014

Emergency dispatcher Kari Bueno once wanted the person clogging up their lines with false 911 calls to get into a lot of trouble…. In less than a week, someone had made more than 4,000 calls to 911. At one point, Bueno was receiving three to four calls a minute — all of them from the same number, which traced back to a disconnected cellphone…. About three weeks ago, West Jordan police finally tracked down the person making those calls…. The person making the calls was 30-year-old David VanBibber, who has a mental disability. His family says he functions on the level of an 8-year-old…. David VanBibber had an old cellphone that he used as an iPod to listen to music. The phone was disconnected and unable to make calls. But even disconnected cellphones are still able to call 911, which he was accidentally doing while trying to access his music. Bueno and other dispatchers didn’t intend for VanBibber to have his music taken away. But they couldn’t have him continually dial 911, either. The day the cellphone was taken away, Bueno came up with the idea of raising money among the dispatch center employees to buy an iPod Nano and a $100 iTunes gift certificate for him. On Wednesday, VanBibber and his family were invited to Valley Emergency Communications Center and were presented with the gifts….

Cop takes down and tasers elderly man for having expired inspection sticker on a car that didn’t need an inspection sticker

Reported by the Victoria Advocate on December 13, 2014

A Victoria police officer is under investigation after a 76-year-old man accused him of using excessive force during a traffic stop. The officer, Nathanial Robinson, 23, was placed on administrative duty Friday pending the outcome of an internal investigation into whether he violated the use of force policy when he tased Victoria resident Pete Vasquez…. The incident happened … after Robinson saw an expired inspection sticker on the car Vasquez was driving back to [a car dealer] where he helps with mechanical work…. Vasquez got out of the car, which is owned by the car lot, attempting to get the manager. He pointed out to the officer the dealer tags on the back of the car, which would make it exempt from having an inspection…. Police dashboard camera video shows Robinson arresting Vasquez for the expired sticker. When the officer first grabbed Vasquez’s arm, the older man pulled it away. Robinson then pushed Vasquez down on the hood of the police cruiser. The two fell out of the camera’s video frame, but police said the officer used the Taser on Vasquez twice while he was on the ground…. Vasquez was handcuffed, placed in the back of the police cruiser and taken to Citizens Medical Center, where he remained in police custody for two hours….

Man asks for cop’s name, gets tackled and arrested

Reported by Photography Is Not A Crime on December 12, 2014

Derek Youmans never touched the San Francisco cop who pounced on him at the airport…. All he did was offer a handshake before attempting to walk away, already having obtained the cop’s name, Keith Parker, over not having been allowed on a plane earlier after he was falsely accused of drinking…. When Youmans turned to walk away, the cop slapped him from behind, knocking him to the floor, drilling his knees into the back of Youman’s head while using his hands to further press his face into the floor, yelling ‘stop resisting!’ Several other cops came running up and piled on him, grabbing his limbs as Parker twisted his arms behind his back and handcuffed him. Yousman was driven to a jail 40 miles away and released 12 hours later with no charges, no citation and no justification for having been arrested. Nothing more than a contempt-of-cop arrest…. Another man who witnessed the incident, Devaraj Ramsamy, handed his business card to one of Youmans’ co-workers who was there. Ramsamy [confirmed] that Youmans did not touch the officer before he was attacked….

Cops shuttle elderly woman to hospital to visit son after she backs into patrol vehicle during a traffic stop

Reported by Fox News on December 12, 2014

A Utah Highway Patrol trooper’s vehicle was struck after the trooper pulled an elderly woman over, but rather than cite her the man worked with other troopers to get the woman to a hospital so she could be with her gravely ill son she believed to be dying… The woman was traveling from Panaca, Nevada to visit her son, who she thought was in a hospital in Salt Lake City. After the trooper issued the woman a warning, she put the car in reverse and backed into Jones’ patrol car. After the collision, she told the trooper she had very bad eyesight and could hardly see as she drove. Jones told the woman it wasn’t safe for her to be behind the wheel, but rather than go about his business he decided to help….

Unique traffic stops in Missouri bring drivers to tears

Reported by CBS News on December 12, 2014

Earlier this month, in Kansas City, Missouri, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department was out looking for people. And when they spotted a subject, they went after them, in a sting operation the likes of which this country has never seen. What made this operation especially unusual was the man behind it: a fellow in a red hat — known to these men only as ‘Secret Santa.’ Every year this anonymous, wealthy businessman gives out about a hundred thousand dollars worth of hundred dollar bills to random strangers. But this year, instead of doing it all himself, he deputized these deputies to give away much of it….

Cop beats man for asking him to stop blocking traffic

Reported by The Free Thought Project on December 11, 2014

A Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputy is on paid vacation after a video surfaced showing him stomping on a man’s face and hitting him with his flashlight after tasering him. Undersheriff Jaime Lewis says that they are investigating themselves after viewing the video. The man being beaten in the video is 51-year-old John Madison Reyes, who said the incident started when he asked the deputy, whose car was blocking the road, to move…. That’s when this Sacramento deputy began badgering Reyes about his past record, which was completely irrelevant to this confrontation. The deputy then tried to arrest Reyes, for no apparent reason, as the only charge he was given after being beaten and booked into jail, was resisting arrest….